The NSW Independent Planning Commission has conditionally approved the Mount Pleasant Optimisation Project near Muswellbrook.
The contentious approval was condemned by opponents who described it as "reckless and irresponsible."
MACH Energy applied to extend the mine's life by 22 years to the end of 2048.
It also sought to deepen part of the open cut mining area, allowing for the extraction of approximately 444 million tonnes of run-of-mine coal over the life of the mine.
The Project would also increase the existing approved extraction rates from 10.5 to 21 million tonnes per annum of run-of-mine coal.
The commission said on Wednesday that it had granted conditional consent for the project.
In its Statement of Reasons for Decision the commission found the application should be approved, subject to strict conditions including:
The commission said on Wednesday that it had granted conditional consent for the project.
In its Statement of Reasons for Decision the commission found the application should be approved, subject to strict conditions including:
- air quality and noise impacts of the project are capable of being minimised, managed or at least compensated;
- the greenhouse gas emissions for the project have been adequately estimated and are permissible in the context of the current climate change policy framework;
- Opportunities exist for the applicant throughout the life of the project to deploy existing, emerging and future technologies to improve the abatement of greenhouse gas emissions;
- impacts on historic heritage are capable of being managed;
- any harm to Aboriginal cultural heritage can be acceptably managed through conditions of consent;
- biodiversity impacts can be suitably avoided, mitigated and/or offset, including impacts to Delma vescolineata;
- the Project can be managed such that it would not result in a significant impact to surface water and groundwater resources;
- visual impacts associated with the Project would be generally similar to those under the existing approval and would reduce over time as a result of progressive rehabilitation;
- the Project would have a net positive economic impact through the provision of up to an average of 447 direct and indirect full time equivalent jobs in the Muswellbrook and Upper Hunter LGAs, 643 FTE jobs in the wider Hunter Valley region, and 444 FTE jobs elsewhere in NSW.
The commission said the project would have a net positive economic impact through the provision of up to an average of 447 direct and indirect full time equivalent jobs in the Muswellbrook and Upper Hunter local government areas, 643 full-time equivalent jobs in the wider Hunter Valley region, and 444 full-time equivalent jobs elsewhere in NSW.
But Lock the Gate said the project, which would be responsible for nearly one billion tonnes of carbon emissions, highlighted the desperate need for a national approach to assessing major polluting projects.
The Alliance is now calling on federal environment minister Tanya Plibersek to refuse the Mount Pleasant expansion project, given she has the final say on its future.
"It is madness that as humanity teeters on the brink of climate catastrophe, an assessment authority such as the IPC can wave through a coal mine that will be solely responsible for 876 million tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions," Lock the Gate Alliance NSW coordinator Nic Clyde said.
"This project is the largest coal mine expansion approved in the state since the Paris Agreement called on nations of the world to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees yet is totally inconsistent with that pledge."
The Department of Planning and Environment completed its assessment of the project in May and recommended to the Commission that the Project be approved.
A three-member commission panel inspected the site and hosted a two-day Public Hearing in July.
The commission received 689 submissions in support of the Application, 251 objections, 20 comments and 80 emailed submissions.
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