These are the main points from the coal industry’s latest anti-carbon tax campaign.

Australian Coal Association executive director Ralph Hillman and NSW Minerals Council chief executive Nikki Williams said the proposed tax would put nearly 3000 New South Wales coal jobs at risk within three years and lead to 18 coalmines closing within nine years.

The campaign is based on an opinion survey of representatives from 82 coalmining companies which produce about 85 per cent of Australia’s black coal.

They were asked to comment on estimates that a carbon tax would start at $20, for each tonne of mined coal, and rise at a rate of four per cent a year above consumer price index increases.

Mr Hillman told The Singleton Argus that while he could not quantify exact impacts for Hunter coalmines, survey results pointed directly at the Singleton area, as the brunt of the tax was expected to fall heaviest on New South Wales regional areas.

“The cost structure of individual mines is a key factor and the gaseous nature of the geology in another,” Mr Hillman said.

“The survey points towards the Hunter because it has some older, gassy mines and Hunter mines mainly produce thermal coal that sells for about half the price of metallurgical coal that mainly comes from the Illawarra region.

Mr Hillman said the coal survey was “a real wake-up call” on jobs and investment that the government should take seriously.

“The assumptions on price are plausible and the overall findings are meaningful,” he said.

Dr Williams said: “There’s no point being compensated for the impact of the carbon tax if you don’t have a job to pay the bills at all.

The federal government has time to avoid mine closures and job losses by introducing a carbon price through phased-in auctioning of permits at a “sufficiently low level and only applying a carbon tax to fugitive emissions from coalmines in step with our major supply competitors”, she said.

“We believe in action on climate change and we are willing to pay our fair share, but this proposed carbon tax will put our coal industry, the state’s biggest export earner, at a serious disadvantage in comparison with our international competitors,” Dr Williams said.

“The worst thing that could happen is that NSW loses these jobs, investment, royalties and the export earnings without reducing emissions.

“If the emissions go offshore simply because our competitors don’t work within the same system then we would have failed on both counts,” Dr Williams said.