Hunter Valley Operations (HVO) says it is "deeply concerned and disappointed" the NSW Independent Planning Commission (IPC) has requested a four-week extension to deliver its determination on the largest coal project proposed in the state's history.
The IPC wrote to HVO on Friday to request more information about the shortest time period the company considers necessary to "implement an orderly transition".
"The commission has previously asked you a question about an approval period shorter than that proposed in the applications," IPC planning director Stephen Barry wrote.
"You answered, in part, by referring to the assessments of the project being based on the full period. The commission wants to better understand the practical operational factors that inform the application seeking 19 years of operation.
"Accordingly, the commission invites you to provide it with information on what minimum additional period of operations beyond the expiry of the existing approvals would be reasonably necessary to enable an orderly transition for the mine's workforce, suppliers and the local community."
The request came a week before the commission was due to hand down its decision on the project, which is seeking approval to continue mining until 2045.
In addition to state approval, the project requires approval from not only the NSW IPC but also the federal Environment Department.
"The clock is ticking and there are 1500 direct workers, their families and countless Hunter businesses anxiously waiting on the decisions from the NSW and federal governments," the company said in a statement.
"We are now in the sixth year of a prolonged regulatory approval process during which we have amended and adapted the Project to ensure that it meets both NSW and Federal legislative and policy requirements."
"Our operation is an important economic anchor for the Hunter region and over the past four years, HVO has contributed $6.9 billion to the economy."
Rising Tide spokeswoman Alexa Stuart said the Hunter urgently needed a plan and funding to support coal workers and related local industries.
"Glencore had decades to create a plan for workers at the mine's closure, yet the NSW planning department quietly deleted the requirement to develop a mine exit strategy," she said.
"Now they plead that their extension must be approved because a support plan is not yet ready. How could that be seen as anything other than a desperately cynical attempt to sabotage our entire community's effort to plan for our region's future?"
Lock the Gate Alliance national coordinator Georgina Woods said the pollution that the proposed extension would generate would make life harder for communities in the Hunter and across NSW.
"The impacts of this project on global warming would hurt every person in NSW, but since Glencore and Yancoal have done nothing to prepare the mine's workforce for closure, the IPC has to also turn its attention to the welfare of the workforce," she said.
"The NSW government has still not delivered its promise to establish a Future Jobs Investment Authority and a framework to give security to workers as coal mines close and this situation shows how urgent it is that they get their act together.
The IPC's letter to HVO comes just days after NSW Minister for Planning Paul Scully told budget estimates that "there is changing global demand for coal" and that "more than half of the operating coal mines are expected to cease operations by 2035."
