The New South Wales environment watchdog says a plan to extend the life of a Hunter Valley coal-mining complex to 2050 is the “largest coal-mining proposal ever put forward” in the state.
Plans by Yancoal and Glencore to keep its joint-venture Hunter Valley Operations (HVO) mines in the Upper Hunter region going would see almost 30m tonnes of CO2 released, the EPA said in a letter to the state’s planning department.
Without changes to cut greenhouse gas emissions, the letter said HVO’s plan would put pressure on other parts of the state’s economy to go faster on emissions reductions “for NSW to remain on track to meet the legislated net zero emissions target in 2050”.
The EPA said the project “relies on offsets” to reduce its emissions, but that came “with no detail on where the offsets will be generated”.
HVO started its application to extend the life of its mine in 2017. Without further approvals, mining would have to stop at the north pit in June 2025 and the south pit in 2030.
HVO claimed the project would deliver $7.8bn of economic benefits to the state, with 1,500 ongoing jobs and 600 temporary construction jobs.
Direct greenhouse gas emissions from open-cut mining come mainly from the release of underground gases when seams are exposed, as well as from hauling coal out of the mine.
But the bulk of emissions related to the mine would come from the burning of the coal after it is exported overseas. Most of the coal from the project would be burned in power stations.
HVO said the mine extension would produce 438m tonnes of thermal coal for power stations and 59 Mt of coal used in steel-making.
The project would directly emit 29.3m tonnes of CO2-equivalent “with 14.3 MtCO2-e assumed to be offset,” the EPA said, leaving 15 MtCO2-e “unabated between 2024 and 2050”.
The EPA said mining after the year 2040 should be dependent on attempts to “drain” gases before mining and to replace trucks for more efficient models.
The project will need to be assessed by the state’s planning department and then the Independent Planning Commission. The project will also need federal environmental approval.
Campaign group Lock the Gate Alliance said the project would be responsible for adding more than 1.2bn tonnes of CO2 to the atmosphere over its lifetime.
Nic Clyde, the alliance’s state coordinator, said the NSW government had already said it was likely to miss its climate targets for 2030 and 2035.
“Approving the largest coal project in the state’s history would blow those targets out of the water,” he said.
“It would be an absolute disaster for NSW communities already living with the devastating impacts of extreme weather, made worse due to the extraction and burning of fossil fuels like coal.”
He said the HVO project was a “huge test” for the state government’s new climate change laws, passed last year, that legislated targets to cut emissions in half by 2030 and by 70% by 2035, based on 2005 levels.
He said: “The planning system in this state needs to be updated so immensely polluting coal projects like this stand no chance of approval.
“Other industries and businesses in NSW should not have to bear the brunt of greater emissions reduction because coalmines, the biggest cause of global warming, are still trying to expand.”
He said the state had 18 new coal projects being assessed.
“Each one of these projects, if approved, would drastically set back our chance of meeting NSW emissions targets and will fuel dangerous climate change – we can’t afford more coalmine expansions.”
HVO general manager, Dave Foster, said: “The EPA letter does not oppose the proposal. We have already committed to two of the consent conditions the EPA suggests if approval is granted – a three-yearly review of technologies to further reduce emissions and a gas pre-drainage trial within two years of continuing mining.”
He said the proposal was “an effective way to meet continued demand from some of Australia’s key security and trading partners for our high quality coal” and pointed to International Energy Agency projections that there would still be demand for coal up to 2050.
“The mine has been operating for more than 70 years. Because we are largely re-mining previously disturbed areas, there are relatively few additional impacts compared to a new mine or expansion of an existing mine to a similar scale.”
