WHITEHAVEN Coal’s Vickery Coal Project has been approved.
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Whitehaven announced yesterday it had received notification of approval from the NSW Department of Planning and Environment.
RELATED COVERAGE: Strict conditions on Vickery Coal Project approval
The Vickery open cut mine project will be located on about 3450 hectares of land 25km north of Gunnedah off Bluevale Road.
Whitehaven said the start-up time for the mine had not yet been decided, but it was not likely to be before the controversial Maules Creek mine was fully ramped up to full production of 13 million tonnes a year. Maules Creek mine has started operations and Whitehaven is expecting the first coal to be railed in March next year.
Whitehaven’s managing director and chief executive officer Paul Flynn said the approval was a “significant, positive step” for Whitehaven.
“Whitehaven can now seek to form a joint venture for this life-long development which will produce Maules Creek-quality coal,” Mr Flynn said.
The mine will initially produce 4.5 million tonnes per year, with coal transported along the haul road already used by the nearby Tarrawonga and Rocglen mines.
It could almost double to production of eight million tonnes a year. Whitehaven said if this was the case, the mine would need a “much larger capital outlay” for a new coal handling and preparation plant and rail loop.
The project will have a mine life of about 20 years.
Whitehaven bought the Vickery mine site from Coal and Allied in 2010.
The company said the site has recoverable coal reserves of 204 million tonnes, with a coal quality similar to that found in both the Tarrawonga and Rocglen mines.
Whitehaven also owns the adjacent Vickery South and Merton projects, which it has said are likely to “add to the current resources and reserves in the future”. Vickery South will need to be considered through a separate application.
By Ross Tyson, Northern Daily Leader
ENVIRONMENTAL groups have been assured an upcoming parliamentary inquiry into planning decisions in Newcastle and the Hunter will be broad enough to scrutinise the controversial approval of the Maules Creek coal mine.
The inquiry comes in the aftermath of revelations at the recently concluded Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) hearings that Liberal MPs received tens of thousands of dollars in illegal donations from property developers.
The ICAC heard mining mogul Nathan Tinkler, whose company Aston Resources owned the Maules Creek deposit throughout much of its assessment phase, allegedly made illegal political donations while pushing for a new coal terminal in Newcastle.
The billion-dollar infrastructure project, which if approved would have added considerable value to the mine, was rejected by the O’Farrell government in 2012.
However, Maules Creek received approval after the federal government’s assessment was cut short when disgraced former NSW resources minister Chris Hartcher leaked market-sensitive information to the media.
Jonathan Moylan, of anti-mining group Front Line on Coal, welcomed the inquiry, saying it was imperative the public knew whether NSW’s political parties “did favours for big donors”.
“The community’s been rocked by the revelations that have come out of ICAC and what that means for the probity of planning decisions in NSW,” he said.
“We would hope that any proposal that Nathan Tinkler had anything to do with would be looked at by the committee.
“We’ve been calling for an audit and a stop-work (notice issued at Maules Creek) while that audit goes ahead, because it’s the only way that the confidence of the community and the probity of the approvals can be restored.”
Whitehaven Coal and Aston Resources agreed to a $5.1 billion deal in late 2011 and construction of the $767 million Maules Creek coalmine, located in the Leard State Forest near Boggabri, is more than 50 per cent complete.
The inquiry will be chaired by Reverend Fred Nile of the Christian Democratic Party and it is due to hand down its findings before the state election in March next year.