UNDERGROUND methods have virtually been ruled out for the proposed $600million Mount Thorley Warkworth coalmine expansion.
The pit’s operations general manager Cam Halfpenny told a state government planning assessment commission meeting in Singleton that underground extraction would recover less than 20 per cent of an open-cut operation.
He said this in a submission before the commission at Singleton Diggers club on Friday.
The thickness, depth and location of coal seams were suited to the company’s current open-cut style, he said.
The commission, consisting of former state government departmental heads Neil Shepherd, Brian Gilligan and Gabrielle Kibble, heard 70 public submissions during the informal hearing which began last Thursday.
The government set up the commission to consider community views, and other information, before deciding whether or not to endorse an approval recommendation from state planning and infrastructure department officials.
Approval would extend the mine by 11 years from the current 2021 mining approval date and allow an extra 200million tonnes of coal to be extracted.
Mr Halfpenny said the “vital” expansion would create 150 jobs and generate $680million in additional royalty payments to the New South Wales Government to help fund services such as schools, hospitals, roads and policing.
The commission was expected to make a decision early next year.
Mr Halfpenny said that while the open-cut would come 2.6 kilometres from the Bulga village and there would be some impacts, company representatives were committed to doing what they could to minimise them.
When referring to a 2003 ministerial deed to protect Saddle Ridge, which company officials now want to set aside, Mr Halfpenny said he recognised it as a breach of community trust.
Coal prices had, since 2003, risen from $30-a-tonne to $120-a-tonne and expansion had become economical, he said.
“Company officials needed to learn to keep their word next time and see that a situation, such as Saddle Ridge, was not repeated,” Mr Halfpenny said.
If the latest expansion was approved the company would provide land offsets eight times the size of protected areas which would be destroyed, he said.
Representatives of four companies that work at Mount Thorley Warkworth, and four of the pit’s workers, supported the expansion.
Robert Bower, of Boom Logistics, said Singleton was a mining town and needed more coal expansion to underpin its economy.
Mining companies were involved in the community in many ways, including the support of sporting groups, he said.
Peter Rogers, of DMS, said it was an advantage for Singleton to have coalmines at its backdoor as workers did not have far to travel to work and they were close to their families.
Coalminer John Janetzki said the company’s compliance team was aware of dust, noise and blasting issues and strove to exceed environmental expectations.
Wonnarua Nation Aboriginal Corporation spokesman Laurie Perry said the expansion would result in 117 artefacts being gathered from the site and sent to museums plus 163 on-site artefacts being preserved where they were.
Plans to hand the management of Aboriginal areas on Upper Hunter mine sites to his corporation could create up to 50 indigenous jobs, Mr Perry said.
Bulga area resident Susanna O’Brien said that if the 2003 ministerial deed to protect Saddle Ridge was not upheld a class legal action may be taken against the state government.
Another Bulga resident Andrew Upward said open-cut blasting was already affecting residents’ lives and, if the latest expansion went ahead, the village would disappear.
Resident Adam Cameron called on commisioners to stop the rape of the Hunter’s small villages by making coal companies comply with state environmental laws.
If coal in the application area must be mined, at least restrict it to underground methods, Mr Cameron said.
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