Thousands of Australian jobs are under threat with the largest privately owned coal miner in the world, Peabody Energy, warning its financial survival was under a cloud.
The company operates a string of coal mines in Queensland and NSW, having outlaid $6.5 billion to acquire Australian miners such as Excel and Macarthur Coal during the past decade. 
Peabody's deepening financial woes come as other local coal miners have been retrenching staff and dumping mines amid the worst downturn in the coal market in decades. Just last week, BHP axed 300 jobs from one of its mines in the Hunter Valley, citing continued low prices, and Rio Tinto is seeking to offload the bulk of its local mines.
The troubled miner has declared a 30-day grace to make interest payments of $US71 million on two sets of borrowings and if the payments cannot be made, it could declare bankruptcy as it seeks to reorganise its finances in a bid to stay afloat. Its warning came in the wake of the collapse of other large US coal producers such as Arch Coal and Alpha Natural Resources in recent months. The US coal industry is facing structural decline due to low gas prices, which have encouraged users to switch energy source.
''We may not have sufficient liquidity to sustain operations and continue as a going concern,'' Peabody told investors in a statement in the US on Wednesday.
In Queensland, Peabody operates the Burton and Coppabella mines, which are near Mackay, along with the Middlemount, Millennium and Moorvale mines, all in Queensland, and also the North Goonyella mine.
In NSW it operates the Metropolitan mine near Wollongong, the Wambo mine near Singleton in the Hunter Valley and the Wilpinjong mine near Mudgee, further west.