Mod 6 - Expansion of Coal Mine

I support Coal and Allied's Warkworth Modification to gain access to an aditional 350m of land owned by the mine to avoid a significant drop in production and employment.
I have been employed with Coal and Allied for 35 years, and 27 of those years I have been employed at Mount Thorley Warkworth Mine.
In the event the mine does not get this modification I will loose my job and I probably wouldn't get another job locally in the mining industry. This is the only job I've had and there would be 1300 other younger employees looking for employment if MTW closed.

I support Coal and Allied's Warkworth Modification application to gain access to an additional 350m of land owned by the mine to avoid a significant drop in production and employment.
I have been employed at Mount Thorley Warkworth Mine as Mobile Equipment Operator for 23 years. Mount Thorley Warkworth Mine provides a stable income for 1300 full time employees and puts $200million into the local Hunter Valley economy through paying companies that do work for MTW each year. I would like to see this commitment to the community continue into the future.
However if we do not get this modification approved I am worried about what this means for local jobs and investment across the NSW mining industry.

I support Coal and Allied's Warkworth Modification application to gain access to an additional 350m of land owned by the mine to avoid a significant drop in production and employment.
I have been employed at Mount Thorley Warkworth Mine as a Mobile Equipment Operator for 5 years. Mount Thorley Warkworth Mine provides a stable income for 1300 full time employees and contributes to local businesses and the community.
I have just brought a house in the local area but fear if we did not get this modification I may loose my job and have to leave the area to gain future employment.

I moved from Western Australia to take a position at this mine site, I live in Singleton and shop locally whilst raising a family (with my step daughter attending the local high school) and depending on the approval hope to buy a house here. My husband also moved here to work at the same site before we were married. If the site does not get the approval and jobs are reduced we will have to leave the area and look for work elsewhere.

The impact the loss of MTW will have on the community, local business and families will be felt across the hunter. It will deverstate local economy, house prices will drop, and a major sponsor of local schools and sporting in the hunter, the snow ball effect a major loss like this has to be well thought as to how far the loss falls back onto other jobs through out the community

Me and my partners future depends on this extension

I have recently moved my down from central Queensland to Singleton with my wife & two children. I worked for Rio Tinto for the past 4years & at MTW for the past 15 mths. My family & I enjoy the lifestyle down here. I feel it would have a large impact on the area if this extension did not go head,it would effect so many peoples livelyhoods, not only in the mining industry but businesses in the area & property values.

Kind Regards
Rick Jarvis

Submission : Warkworth / Mt Thorley

The five main concerns with this proposal are :

1. Noise:
Noise is becoming more and more intrusive as the mine nears closer with many telephone calls to the Mt Thorley hotline with no doubt many more in the future until the noise level is returned to a non-intrusive standard.
We have suggested a 24 hour seven day a week monitor on our property along side with the blast monitor that we have had for many years now to provide true monitoring levels to both parties and possibly help mine staff keep noise levels in check before they have to make adjustments to mine procedures because of telephone calls to the hotline from angry residents. This suggestion has not been implemented.
We wonder whether the cost of such a proposal stops its implementation or whether it is too restrictive to mining operations. Until the noise levels are at a non-intrusive standard any proposal should be denied.

2. Air Quality
Air quality continues to cause concern on lifestyle and health with no improvement over the past year as blasting still and always will emit dust and fumes while impacting more as time goes on with vegetation being removed as the mine progresses towards us and erodes the buffer zone it supplies.
The close proximity of the mine and the continuous removal of the vegetation is the main reason we feel for reduced air quality and with blasting not being reduced in size, dragline and ancilllary plant also continuing at the present rates it will always reduce the air quality to unacceptable levels.

3. Vibration:
After some ten years or so we still have to tolerate unacceptable shaking of our home just because these blasts do not exceed legislative levels. Although after years of meetings and C&A implementing certain procedures the amount of times we are subjected to these types of blasts have reduced they certainly have not stopped. Until the actual discomfort is acknowledged and acted upon we will continue to receive the same old "sorry but we have not exceeded our consent criteria".

4. Visual Impact:
As with all other types of impacts the removal of vegetation is changing our landscape from trees, grasses etc as in a natural rural habitat to a coal mine with dragline , trucks and overburden dump areas.
It is interesting to note that only last month I received a telephone call from C&A representative Rob about an exceedence notice C&A had received and in that conversation Rob asked me if there were any other concerns I would like to discuss. I informed Rob that over the past six months or so we began to notice the mine eg: dragline, trucks and overburden dumps especially at night and although only visible at certain times it is becoming larger and clearer as time progresses. Rob informed me he was not aware of this, I then pointed out that in my previous submission I stated that the locations of photographic view points had been changed from the previous EIS and therefore did not give the same landscape changes as the previous photos which was quite baffling unless there was something to be hidden and if the previous view points were used he possibly would have noticed the changing landscape himself.

5. C&A and NSW Planning:
The concern we have with C&A is that although I would say that we have an amicable relationship and both parties are committed to this continuing over the life of the mine this family has not received any committment to our lifestyle and health being preserved in any decision asked for or given and this seems very unlikely to change in the near future.
NSW Planning, after many telephone calls, submissions and forums as with C&A this family has not received any assurances eg: mitigation, acquisition and feel that the only thing that has been delivered to us would be the old quote " a good kick up the rear end ". This I am sure would be the feelings of the other families isolated between the few properties on one side and the village on the other.

Conclusion:
Under no circumstances should this proposal be approved.

I have been employed at MTW in the North Washery for about 5yrs. Also spent 2yrs on site permanent as a contractor, My farther built this wash plant, then spent another 25yrs working here. I would like to see this mine stay open long enough so that i may have the chance to work with my children here, if they so desire. The people who work here are the reason that i come to work. I have worked at other places were they closed the business and does not compare if this mine was to closed.

I strongly oppose the extension to the Warkworth Mine for the following reasons:

- there was no consultation with the Bulga community prior to the announcement of the intended extension. The area proposed to be mined has already been the subject of an application to mine, which has been denied by the NSW Land & Environment Court.

- Rio Tinto together with the Government of NSW subsequently challenged this decision in the High Court. The outcome of this appeal is expected to be announced within days. Why then this sudden rush with the application for the mine extension. It shows disrespect for the Australian High Court and for the people of Bulga.

- Rio Tinto is in process of selling coal mines in Queensland. One reason for the rush extension might be the intention to sell and the extension would bring higher price. After all the only thing that matter to this company is profit.

- Rio Tinto always comes with the argument that 1300 jobs are at stake. Yes, jobs are very important in Singleton, because there is no other employment. When the decision of the Environment Court was announced, 40 jobs were lost without any reason, just a political stunt to show what might follow. The job propaganda causes great harm, it puts people of Singleton against Bulga, because we might be stealing jobs from their children.

- Rio Tinto certainly doesn't give a thought to the residents of Bulga. I and my husband are in over seventy years old, we built our house here, created a beautiful garden and hoped to live in peace in our little paradise. Now we live with dust and noise and constant stress. Who is going to compensate us for the loss of our home. And if Rio Tinto goes ahead with the push, we end up like all the little country towns that disappeared, because coal is more important than people.
When the Government of New South Wales joined Rio Tinto in the High Court appeal against little village of Bulga we have realized that we were abandoned by the people we voted for.
A rather sobering experience.

I have been employed in the mining industry for 10 years. I am currently employed at Mount Thorley Warkworth Mine as a mobile equipment operator. MTW employs 1300 full time employees and puts $200million back into local businesses that do work at the mine each year.
I have a small family and should the Warkworth Modification not get approved I worry about the security of my job.
Please accept my submission in support of the Warkworth Modification.

I am an Employee of Coal & Allied.
I have been employeed by Rio Tinto since 2005, and this job is supporting myself, my wife and three children.
My job is dependant on the extension to this mine, without which my family will be without any income.

I strongly object to the application to extend the Warkworth Mine for the following reasons:

1. The mining company agreed in its 2003 development consent that it would extents its mining activities toward Bulga village. In making the major life decision to stay in the area and build or improve their properties, the residents of Bulga trusted the commitments given by two large organisations - the NSW Government and Warkworth Minding Ltd. For the company to then change its mind a scant 7 years later and decide to extend is completely unfair to the citizens of Bulga - they made a commitment, and should be forced to honour it.

The fact that the NSW government is actively colluding with a large mining company against its own private citizens is absolutely reprehensible.

2. The Land and Environment Court blocked the development in April 2013, giving detailed reasoning, citing the major impacts a mining extension would have, both to the environment and the Bulga residents. Nothing has changed since that decision was handed down - the environmental impacts remain the same. This extension would have a major negative impact on the citizens of Bulga, which is utterly unacceptable.

3. My parents, George and Tanya Tlaskal live on Inlet Rd in Bulga. They have lived in the area for almost thirty years, building a lovely home, raising a family and now enjoying a well-earned retirement. They have planted hundreds of trees, turning a barren block into a wonderful garden. They have devoted their latter years to making a life in Bulga. In doing so, they trusted their government and their neighbour, Warkworth Mining, to honour the commitments both made in 2003 to protect Bulga. For both organisations to change their mind and destroy my parent's dreams and retirement makes me more angry and upset than I can say.

4. The NSW government clearly needs to balance the needs of mining companies and private citizens. However, in this case, I feel they have the balance dangerously wrong. There are plenty of places to mine in NSW which are not with a couple of kilometres of a long-standing existing village. For the government to extract a commitment from a mining company in 2003 and then collude in this agreement's dismemberment in 2013 displays a set of values which are seriously worrying. The government assisting the strong in crushing the weak is not the Australia I love.

Regards,

-Martin Tlaskal

Not allowing the extension for Mt Thorley Warkworth will affect not only the people who work there directly, but will have a flow on effect through out the hunter region, it will sky rocket the unempolyment figures dramaticly, there will be a great loss in government revenue. There are to many negitives, the only solution for everyone, is to work together, to make draw a line down the middle that will help everyones interests in this. Mining has been a part of this world for centurys, and in most cases, they all seem to work in harmony with there neighbours. Tolerance and understanding is needed.

i worry about the viability of singleton if the 1300 jobs at warkworth mine are lost , given that everytime i walk around my local area i see more and more vaccant houses when there was none just 6 months ok, The mining down turn has hit the town hard and losing another 1300 jobs will make it a lots worse

I am a miner and I am part of the community where I live and bring up my family.
Mining is already a highly regulated industry that operates under some of the strictest environmental conditions in the world.
I am very concerned about calls to change the Planning Bill to make it even harder for mining in this state. That is bad for my job and bad for the economy.
The uncertainty in the planning system for more than two and a half years has been terrible for jobs. I am worried that my job could also be affected if opponents of mining get their way.
I urge you to pass the Planning Bill without any amendments that would threaten my job.

Times are already tough and we need Mines like Mt Thorley Warkworth to stay strong, so there is continued work for companies like ours.

Times are already tough and we need Mines like Mt Thorley Warkworth to stay strong, so there is continued work for companies like ours.

i support the submission, my income supports my family without it i will have troubles to do so.

I urge you to pass the Planning Bill without any amendments that would threaten my job and the economy. Mining is already a highly regulated industry that operates under some of the strictest environmental conditions in the world.