The owners of Hunter Valley Operations mine have refused to consider a shorter mine life in response to questions from the Independent Planning Commission, insisting the project needs a full 19-year extension.
The Independent Planning Commission has reopened public submissions on the HVO Continuation Project, the largest coal project ever proposed in NSW, after receiving a response from the Glencore-Yancoal venture to questions about how long it would need for an “orderly transition.”
Lock the Gate Alliance National Coordinator Georgina Woods said Glencore and Yancoal were pushing the HVO workforce and the planning system “to the brink” by refusing to consider a compromise option that would retain mining jobs while limiting the project’s environmental harm. She said the company’s position that a shorter extension would be “economically equivalent to a rejection” showed its stated concern for workers and local businesses was “cynical and hollow.”
Glencore’s says it could undertake an orderly transition of its Hunter Valley Operations coal mine within the final three to five years of a final closure date, but totally rejects the suggestion that this proposition become a reality.
Public submissions have once again opened, and close on September 9.
