New Hope warns Qld enviro Bill risks A$900m coal mine expansion

PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Coal miner New Hope has warned that it will likely start redundancies at its Acland mine, in Queensland, if the state Parliament passes new environmental legislation that risks a A$900-million expansion of the mine.

In a letter to Queensland MPs, New Hope MD Shane Stephan said that the Environmental Protection (Underground Water Management) and Other Legislation Amendment Bill, in its current form, posed a risk to the expansion of the Acland mine.

The New Acland Stage 3 project will expand the mine’s yearly output from 4.8-million tonnes to 7.5-million tonnes and will extend the mine life beyond the current end-date of 2017/18.

The expanded operation will see a further 260 people employed at the mine, and could inject some A$12-billion in local, state and federal revenues over the life of the project.

However, Stephan noted in his letter that despite the project having been subject to an environmental-impact statement (EIS), a public consultation, and the issue of a draft environmental approval by the Department of Environment and Heritage Protection in August last year, the new Bill could stall the expansion by as much as two years, as New Hope would have to apply for an associated water licence, which would require a mining lease approval and a baseline assessment.

The baseline assessment could take between 6 to 12 months to complete, Stephan pointed out, noting that the application process for an associated water licence could take an additional 6 to 12 months.

“As resource within our current mining lease will be declining in 2018, it has always been New Hope’s case, and in fact the subject of our application for urgency in the current Land Court hearings, that without approval of a further mining lease in a timely manner, by the first quarter of 2017, redundancies will commence as early as April next year,” Stephan said.

Stephan has called on the MPs to support better transitional arrangements within the Bill for projects that were in the latter stages of the approvals process.

In its submissions to the Parliamentary Committee, mining giant Rio Tinto has also warned that the Bill could delay its own Kestrel Extension 4 project and its Hail Creek transition projects, which have already successfully completed various public submissions and third party challenge process as part of their statutory approvals pathways.

The Bill was referred to a committee in September, with the Agriculture and Environment Committee expected to report back to Parliament by October 25.

The Bill aims to strengthen the effectiveness of the environmental assessment of underground water extraction by resource projects, allow the ongoing scrutiny of the environmental impacts of underground water extraction during the operational phase of a resource project, and ensure the administering authority for the Environmental Protection Act was the decision-maker for specific applications relating to environmental authorities.

The Bill further aims to ensure that the impacts of mining projects that are advanced in their environmental and mining tenure approvals are “appropriately assessed” for their impact on the environment and underground water users, and that opportunities for public submissions and third-party appeals are provided before underground water is taken.