Lock The Gate Slams Department of Planning For Recommending New Coal Mine

BY JARROD MELMETH

The NSW Department of Planning has recommended a new coal mine in the Hunter Valley, on the same day a report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change warned of dangerous climate change impacts if coal mining continues to increase.

The report warns if warming was allowed to reach 2C, the world would risk hitting "tipping points", setting a course towards uncontrollable temperatures.

Carmel Flint from Lock the Gate said the recommendation to proceed shows the NSW Government is completely missing in action.

“Not only will this mine put the climate at risk, but new research shows it will take South Korean mining giant KEPCO one step closer to destroying a magnificent valley with state significant heritage values.

“The Department of Planning and Environment has cherry-picked the expert heritage information and moved only to amend the mine plan slightly when it’s clear the mine should have been rejected outright.

“Equally worrying is that there is no new information on Aboriginal cultural heritage impacts provided by the department, even though the Independent Planning Commission previously stated that further investigation was needed.  

“This mine will only proceed with the backing of the NSW Government, who at every step has allowed it to progress through the planning process despite the obvious and unacceptable risks it poses to farmland, water, and heritage.


“We’re calling on the NSW Premier to come and meet local landholders and visit the site as a matter of urgency and then to take firm action to end this dangerous mining proposal," Ms. Flint said.

Bylong coal mine project could devastate Hunter environment

BY JESSICA ROUSE

Plans for the new Bylong Coal Project between Denman and Mudgee have been dealt yet another blow with the Planning Assessment Commission (PCA) slamming the project.

The PAC report on the KEPCO coal mine project slammed it for gaps in evidence and high levels of uncertainty, particularly about the potential cumulative impacts on the Bylong Valley and the community. The report also flagged numerous issues with water access, protection of surrounding agriculture and incomplete information.

There are particular concerns for the Hunter Valley from the Lock the Gate Alliance who say the scathing review revealed the Bylong coal project would directly open cut rich farmland in the Hunter and severely impact Tarwyn Park.

NSW Greens energy and resources spokesperson Jeremy Buckingham says the mine will destroy ecologically and environmentally important areas throughout the Hunter and the state.

"The area must be protected for its agriculture and tourism value plus its environmental values in an age of climate change the greens do not believe we should be opening up new coal mines in NSW."

If approved the mine will extract a total of 124 million tonnes, roughly 6.5 million each year, from both open cut operations and underground. Jeremy Buckingham is urging the government to reconsider the mine and realise just how much it will wreck the Bylong Valley, its community and the surrounds.

"The Bylong Valley must be protected, it's important, ecological,, agricultural, and our tourism assets will be destroyed by this stupid coal mine. We have major climate change and we do not need to be opening coal mines, the Greens are calling on the government to cancel their exploration licence  and give the people, the Bylong Valley and NSW certainty that that region will be protected from destructive coal mining."

Bylong Valley gets the all clear for new open cut mine

BY DANIELLE RIES

The NSW Department of Planning has announced the approval of a new open cut mine in the Hunters Bylong Valley despite the disapproval of the Lock the Gate Alliance, describing it as 'unfathomable'.

The assessment of underground water impacts, noise impacts on some properties and subsidence impacts or more than 17 thousand hectares was enough to give this project the all clear.

But, the Hunter Regional Coordinator for the Lock the Gate Alliance Steve Philips says the proposed mine will ruin the heritage of the site.

"This is an extremely picturesque and highly agriculturally productive valley that doesn't have any coal mines in it at the moment and the proposed mine would basically dig all that up.

"It involves digging up graves and churches, cutting up strategic agricultural land, digging up some really precious and irreplaceable Aboriginal cultural heritage sites and emptying this rural community".

Mr Philips also stated that the community doesn't deserve to suffer.

"Many of the inhabitance of the Bylong Valley have already been forced out. This is the injustice that happens with mining approvals in a state where before the mines even approved, there in there muscling people out of the valley and then they turn around to the government and say well we already own most of the valley so you should give us our mine now.

"Communities shouldn't have to pay the price for the government's addiction to approving coal mines".

Sign against mining in the Bylong Valley
Credit- The Land