PLANS to extend the life of Hunter Valley Operations coal mine to 2050 to remove another 400 million tonnes of coal are forging ahead with the submission of a scoping report to the federal government.
Yancoal and Glencore, joint operators of Hunter Valley Operations (HVO) located just outside Singleton, lodged the report with the Federal Department of Agriculture, Water and Environment, ahead of community consultation and the completion of an environmental impact statement.
In it they say they can economically extract another 400 million tonnes of coal from deeper seams in previously mined areas.
That decision stands in stark contrast to BHP's shock announcement two weeks ago to close down its Mt Arthur coal mine in Muswellbrook.
The economic challenges were a key consideration, according to Mt Arthur Coal general manager Adam Lancey, despite a "recent price strengthening".
"We know we're a complex pit to operate due to the steep monocline - a known geological feature of our pit," Mr Lancey told workers in an email.
There was minimal value post 2030 as mining approached the "steep monocline which deepens the pit and increases the proportion of waste mined versus coal produced, resulting in higher costs and more capital expenditure required beyond 2030", he said.
However, the HVO scoping report says theirs will be an efficient process, using existing infrastructure to "economically recover an additional 400mt" of coal within "existing mining tenements and predominantly existing approved disturbance footprints".
HVO is a multi-pit open cut mining complex, made up of two mine sites separated by the Hunter River, HVO North and HVO South.
While the two mine sites have separate approvals, they are operated as one complex with an integrated environmental management system.
The HVO North operation is approved to extract up to 22 million tonnes per annum of run-of-mine coal until June, 2025.
At HVO South, up to 20 million tonnes of coal can be mined each year until March, 2030.
The current proposal seeks to continue the life of HVO North and HVO South, from the current approved mining completion dates of 2025 and 2030 respectively, to approximately 2050 at HVO North and 2045 at HVO South.
There are 40 coal mines operating across NSW, including 15 in the Upper Hunter appproved, or seeking approval to operate to 2035 or beyond, some seeking to operate beyond 2040.
Among them Mt Pleasant, where MACH Energy plans to double its yield, extending its lifespan to 2048.
The proposal has been panned by 140 objectors, which have included members of the Hunter Valleys equine industry, farmers, health experts, as well as initially drawing heavy criticism from the state government itself, including NSW Health.
The NSW Planning Department, however, has recommended it for approval and it is now before the Independent Planning Commission which is holding public hearings on July 7 and 8.
BHP had talked about seeking an extension for the Mt Arthur mine to operate until 2045 as part of the divestment process, although it never formally applied for that extension.
