HVO North Open Cut Coal Continuation Project

Hunter Valley Operations is a longstanding fixture in the Singleton and Muswellbrook communities. It supports multiple families and businesses in the region, including my own, and has done for generations. This approval is critical to continued mining at HVO beyond 2025 to ensure the positive impacts of a large employer continue to benefit those who live in the area (either directly or indirectly) and to support our Councils and Government to provide a high quality of services in the region. The longevity of HVO is central to the regions transition to other industry as existing coal operations reach their end of life. All projects have impacts and need to be weighed against the benefits they bring. Due to the nature of the operation, location of the additional disturbance, the impacts of this project are limited and manageable.

This is a critical project to the area and state

This project will benefit a wide range of individuals, from businesses, local schools and communities, right through to supporting welfare agencies such as Rotary, Lions Club etc with funding and financial grants, open days and sponsored events.
Employment on site also benefits due to production numbers needed creating job opportunities

I support the HVO North and South Continuation Project because it a valuable asset to the Region and State. It will provide a wide range of career opportunities for many People in the Community and the younger generation of the Hunter Region. It will also have a flow on effect to many businesses in the area which will help the Region to thrive.
The Environment will not be impacted any further then it already has as it is just Mining where it has previously been Mined and it is NOT an expansion.
The State also benefits from royalties it receives from Mining Companies which helps to fund Schools, Hospitals and Infrastructure Projects.
If the Project was not approved it would have a drastic impact on local towns in the Hunter Region because the majority of people will be unemployed and these small Regional Towns will become abandoned and the people that do stay will be left in the lurch.

The HVO continuation project is vital for the success of the Hunter Valleys Economy. This project will continue to provide employment opportunities and financial support for thousands of families and businesses over the course of its life out to 2050. In addition to financial support and benefits through ongoing support to local businesses, the NSW state government will also reap long term benefits through the millions of dollars of royalities it will obtain which will be needed to put back into local, regional and state infrastructure. This will become further important as the Hunter Valley area sees continual exponential population growth.
The project itself will see negligible environmental impacts on top of what has already been approved with the benefits of continued employment, local community funding/support and financial injections into the economy far outweighing the perceived environmental impacts.
The current state of the renewables sector is not developed enough to ensure a complete transition away from Coal for Australia and nor will it be ready in the coming decades. Renewables also doesn't provide ongoing employment opportunities like what Coal does for the state. In the current economic landscape with the increases of costs of living and further pressures of raised bank interest rates with a chance that a recession is looming, ongoing secure jobs is vital to pull the economy through tough times such as these.
From what has been discussed above, the continuation project is vital not only for the future of the local area but also the broader state and national economies.

The continuation of Hunter Valley Operations will secure the long term future for not only its permanent employees but also contractors in the region like myself. HVO are active in the support of the community through sponsorships and donations and have very strict environmental policies to protect the environment.

Mining in the hunter valley provides unmeasurable value to local residents and businesses. Local developments, businesses, residents and families have all directly and/or indirectly received benefits of the investments that mining projects make for decades. HVO is providing security and growth in our area's future where there is no guarantee otherwise.

i support the project for the continual boost it will being to the local and national economy.

I believe this project will allow the mine to continue to support the region in a positive way. This will continue to create employment opportunities to the region were the majority of income will be spent on local business. The mine uses quality local suppliers who rely on the size of the mine to stay in business. The project does not expand on current mining leases and the mine has repeatedly successfully rehabilitated lands from previous workings.

I object to the expansion ("continuation") of the HVO North and South Open Cut Coal Mine.
In a time when we must be reducing emissions, this project will double their own emissions. In a time when we are on the brink of "the point of no return" for our changing climate we must not be approving the expansion of fossil fuels.
I object to the impacts on Aboriginal Heritage but most of all I utterly oppose the impacts to Biodiversity with a further loss of habitat (400 hectares) including 100 hectares of threatened ecological communities. This is entirely unacceptable and will contribute significantly to the extinction crisis our nation currently faces.
The restoration plan for these sites is unacceptable. Biodiversity lost and a wasteland of salty lakes left in their place. I reject this entirely.
I urge you to reject this application
Sincerely
Lisa Harrold

The industry supports and makes available many thins that we rely on to live life from medical, food, and everything else, so why stop it.

i believe hvo is a good candidate for an extension
this is why.
jobs
community support
large economic contributor to jobs in the wide reaches of the hunter.
large resource with low gas so lower environmental impact
preexisting mine so less impact than starting up
large community evolvement and support
big community involved operations like hvo boost the opportunity for education in the area as it provides a goal for many to reach higher education.

currently contracted and enjoy the environment

im currently an employee of HVO and think it is in the best wishes for not only myself but the community that the mine stays open in the future

As an employee at HVO I need this job to support my sick wife as her medical bills are expensive, the wage I get now is not only spent near my home address but also in the Singleton area thus supporting the local community. I therefore support the continuation of HVO.

I support Hvo north due to keeping jobs in the area

I object strongly to the HVE North Open Cut Coal Continuation Projects (both SSD-11822621 and SSD-11826681 proposals).
We cannot afford this project for the very basic reason that it is inconsistent with climate action to keep our planet from heating beyond 2 deg C above historical temperatures. It is inconsistent with the Paris Agreement which Australia has signed.

NSW needs to stop allowing coal mining exploration and stop expansions and continuations of coal mining. Please NSW government get on and call an end to all fossil fuel exploration and new/extended operations so they and ordinary people like me can get on with our lives and do something much more productive and proactive about solving our societal problems!

This project will see an extraction of an additional 400 million tonnes of ROM coal till 2045 will create GHG emissions the world (and Australia and NSW) cannot afford. Even if the proponent might argue that a lot of the coal will be burned offshore so the Scope-3 GHG emissions won't be ours. It does not matter! It will still affect the climate system which we all need to support us!

And not only that - Australia is shameful the way it under-counts coal-mine so-called "fugitive" methane emissions (see https://ember-climate.org/insights/research/tackling-australias-coal-mine-methane-problem/). Yet despite this, this proposal would seek to allow HVO to double their annual Scope 1 GHG emissions (mainly fugitive methane and diesel emissions released during mining) from the 0.56 million tonnes CO2e reported in their 2021 Annual Environmental Review to an average of 1.19 million tonnes CO2e for the next 27 years. We already have enough unregulated unremediated coal mines and CSG operations in Australia that are emitting enormous amounts of methane - and we do not need any more. Just look at South32's Appin NorthCliff vent which spews out methane gas in a very obvious non-fugitive way! That has been going on for at least a decade and where is the action? Where is the capture of the methane? Do we want the world's climate to hit 5 or 10 deg C above historical values and be responsible for the complete collapse of all human civilisations across the globe??? According to EMBER's June 2022 report (see ref above), methane leaking from coal mines will blow Australia’s already weak 2030 climate targets. Why make the problem worse? Approving this project would be inconsistent with Australia's commitment to the Global Methane Pledge which requires at least a 30% cut in methane emissions globally by 2030.

Further I am disgusted that, according to the NSW Government's own predictions, coal mining emissions in NSW are the only sector that the NSW Government predicts will increase this decade. Under the latest ‘current policy scenario’ in the ‘NSW Greenhouse Gas Emission Projections, 2021−2050’ (report dated 20 January 2023), fugitive emissions from coal mines (open cut and underground) are projected to increase by about 10% from 11.63 million tonnes CO2e in 2020 to 12.8 million tonnes CO2e in 2030.

I hope this EIS goes for determination by an INdependent Planning Commission. And I ask you to find that contributing to climate destruction at this point in time would be wilfully wrong and entirely against the public interest. If you are any doubt about the public interest, just ask those impacted by the Australian 2019-2020 bushfires or NSW 2022 floods impacted residents, or ask those who cannot speak now at all - all those dead from heat impacts in our country.

This continual stream of coal mine applications really has to stop. I am really tired of having to write submissions against coal mining. And yet EIGHT NET COAL MINING proposals are in the NSW system right now. It makes me physically sick. Shame on the NSW government for their inaction to date.

I fully support the project due to my family benefitting from full time employment at HVO. This allows us to live in the hunter valley and support our local businesses.

Director Energy and Resource Policy,
Department of Planning, Industry and Environment
Locked Bag 502
Parramatta NSW 2124

Dr Christine Underhill
16A Battery Street
Coogee
NSW 2034
21st February 2023
Submission against the North and South Hunter Valley Operations (HVO) Continuation Project
I am a concerned 60-year-old Australian who has been visiting the Hunter regions for the last 30 years. I am against the proposed HVO continuation project. My reasons are outlined below.
• Three years ago the International Energy Agency provided a landmark report on what will be required in terms of our energy production and consumption if we want to have a hope of reaching net zero by 2050... of avoiding catastrophic global warming. This requires phasing out coal, oil and gas and investing massively in renewable energy sources. It also specified, very clearly, that we cannot afford to open any no new oil or gas fields, or any new coal mines/ extensions to existing coal mines, by 2022.
• HVO seeks approval to more than triple Scope 1 fugitive methane emissions from 182,625t CO2-e projected for 2023 to 590,284 t CO2-e in 2030 at a time when the Global Methane Pledge (to which Australia is a signatory) requires at least a 30% cut in methane emissions globally by 2030.
• This is the most polluting project in NSW since the Paris agreement.
• Glencoe plan to increase their diesel use rather than electrifying their fleet for this project, they have no credible greenhouse emission reduction action plan, they have terrible credential and have been prosecuted for bribery and fined millions of dollars in the UK and elsewhere int the world.
• The newly discovery and potentially endangered legless lizard is at risk from the project, as is 97 hectares which is home of Threatened Ecological Communities.
• Aboriginal Heritage There are significant Aboriginal heritage sites adjacent to these areas, which the IPC have found would be impacted by this project. Significant sites have already been destroyed by mining and our laws are inadequate to protect these sites.
• Impact on current local economy Mines provide a flow of revenue to governments and their (mostly foreign) owners, however, the flow on to local businesses and local communities is generally not seen. The Hunter in the biggest coal export terminal, yet they only contribute to two percent (2%) of State Revenue; the rest goes overseas. T
• There will be a loss of agricultural lands, farms would disappear or lose their water, and productive agricultural lands would be dug up or left fallow.
• The people in the region have built long-term sustainable economic stability for this region. This revenue stays in the pockets of our local businesses. Businesses that have helped build the tourism industry in the region include vineyards, olive groves, horse studs, beef and sheep farms, eco-tourism, short stay accommodation, restaurants, cafes, antique shops, soft furnishings and knick-knacks for example. These businesses are incompatible with mining: tourists do not come to see coal mines.
• Mining is a specialist industry. People with the skills tend to follow the mines and very few additional local jobs are created. Like many industries, mining is becoming more automated, requiring fewer people. Over the next five years, mining is predicted to create just 0.4 percent of new jobs across all of Australia.
• The cost of living, especially housing, is often driven up to levels locals can no longer afford, as they cannot compete with the high wages miners receive.
• Social & health implications Air, water, soil and noise pollution, do not stay within the boundaries of the coal mining sites. The neighbouring Hunter Valley is now a pollution ‘hotspot’ and has some of the highest rates for respiratory and cardiac conditions in NSW. Mines can be associated with increased rates of alcohol and drug abuse, violence, sexual assaults, and other crimes in adjoining communities.
Please take my submission into consideration before making a decision regarding this mine extension
Yours sincerely,
Dr Christine Underhill

I would like to support this project due to the maintained jobs it supports for this area. The footprint is mainly already mined land with deeper seams being mined. It makes sense to continue the operation with already affected land.
The need of electricity continues with infrastructure to renewable option not going to be ready in time. The Australians emissions is nothing to what the world produces and it's about time the government started looking after the future of their people rather then the radical minority.

Sincerely
Paul Murray.