New South Wales government’s Independent Planning Commission has approved, with conditions, the United Wambo coal project in the state’s Hunter Valley.
Glencore’s United Collieries Pty Ltd had sought approval for expansion of USD 381 Million coal project at its existing Wambo coal mine and United colliery. The requisite permission was intended in order to facilitate the extraction of an additional 150 MnT of run-of-mine (ROM) coal over a 23-year period.
Apparently, the Department of Planning, Industry and Environment finalised its assessment of the project last November and referred the matter to the Commission for determination amid community opposition.
The commission noted the conditions of approval were designed to prevent, minimise and/or offset adverse social and environmental impacts; set standards and performance measures for acceptable environmental performance; require regular monitoring and reporting; and provide for the ongoing environmental management of the development.
After concluding the United Wambo project was in the public interest, IPC has set out protocols that require the applicant to use all reasonable and feasible measures to ensure that any coal extracted from the development that is to be exported from Australia, is only exported to countries that are:
a) parties to the Paris Agreement within the United Nations framework convention on climate change; or
b) countries that the commission considers have policies for reducing greenhouse gas emissions as required if it were a party to the above agreement.
United Collieries Pty. Limited (United) was formed in 1980 and operated as an underground coal mine. United’s ownership comprises 95% Glencore Coal Pty. Ltd. and 5% Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU).
In Nov’14, Glencore and Peabody agreed to form a 50:50 Joint Venture to develop an open-cut coal mine project that would combine the existing open cut operations at Wambo Coal with a new open-cut at United collieries.
It was proposed that Glencore will manage the combined open-cut mining operations utilising Wambo mine’s existing infrastructure. Peabody will continue to operate the Wambo underground, the coal handling and preparation plant (CHPP) and rail facilities.
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