Mod 6 - Expansion of Coal Mine

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 have a family to support and the location of the mine allows me to be around for my family, and if the extension isnt approved my only alternative is to move away for work.

The life of the mine greatly contributes to the income and business throughout the region and through the flow on effect of the mine, thousands of jobs could be at risk.

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.

I have been operating at MTW now for over 2 years and unlike the majority of employees at MTW, I relocated to Singleton from interstate with my family. We have bought a house in Singleton and our two children have made new friendships at school and outside activities. My wife has recently started a part time job in which she is very happy and we plan to be here long term. This modification is very important to me and my family.

The mine help businesses around the community by providing employment and economy back into the region. It helps everyone within the region and is needed to continue doing so. It is my future and generations to come.

I would like to convey my support of the application that if accepted would safeguard the jobs of many people who are currently employed at MTW.

I support this as they are a major supplier of Jobs for the Hunter region we must think of our childrens future

Dear Minister

As an employee of Mount Thorley Warkworth I support the modification application to gain access to an additional 350m of land.

I moved to Singleton from Brisbane two years ago and have been supported by the mine, and in turn have supported local businesses in Singleton and the surrounding area.

Mt Thorley Warkworth has a strong presence in the Hunter Valley and have been very supportive of the local community, sponsoring many events in the time that I have been here.

The closure or reduced operations at Mt Thorley Warkworth would have a detrimental effect not only for employees but also for contractors, supporting businesses, suppliers and their families and businesses. Already with very low coal prices the effect has been seen from Singleton to Newcastle and beyond.

We need certainty in this time of unrest. A mine that has been operating for 30 years, supporting the local and wider community throughout this time should be allowed to continue to do so. I am deeply concerned about what it will mean for local jobs and investment in the mining industry across NSW and Australia if this small modification is not approved.

Please accept this submission in support of the Warkworth Modification.

Dear Minister,

I support Coal & 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.

The Mount Thorley Warkworth operation has assisted in growing the business I am the Sales Manager for from just two people to 10 permanent and up to 8 sub-contractors. Not having this work will mean that we will have to lay off all of the sub-contractors and between 2 & 4 of our permanent employees

Mount Thorley Warkworth provides a stable income for over 1,300 full time employees in the Hunter Valley. And the operation of the mine reaches into many other businesses that supply MTW. Thousands of people depend on this mine and if production was to drop, the result could be devastating.

We need certainty. We've been wondering what the future holds now for four years. If this minor modification to an existing, 30 year old mine does not get approved, I am worried about what this will mean for local jobs and investment across the NSW mining industry.

Please accept this submission in support of the Warkworth Modification.

Regards
Patrick Walters

Dear Minister,

I support Coal & 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.

MTW provides great value to NSW and to the Hunter Valley region. This is true both in a monetary sense and is also true in regard to the people attracted to this region by the development of this mine. I sincerely appreciate the connections that I have made with the employees of MTW and I believe that they have enriched my life.

As a young professional, it is disappointing to see the uncertainty surrounding the future of mining in NSW. Myself and my colleagues have invested in an education geared towards mining and we know how to do it sustainably with respect to the environment and the community. We would like the opportunity to pursue operations that minimize environmental impact while maximizing value to our community. It would be great to be a part of an economy that is growing and creating more opportunities, rather than scaling back operations.

Please accept this submission in support of the modification.

Sincerely,
Cary R. Cooper

I am employed by a Company who provides goods and services to Australian industry, including the Mining Industry.
Ongoing mining activity is crucial to both Australia's and NSW financial health. This is more so crucial for the Hunter Valley area.

The Mt Thorley Warkworth site is a long standing mine, that requires this approval to maintain its mining activities, and the employment of its existing staff, and of companies who provide goods and services to this site.

Mount Thorley Warkworth provides a stable income for over 1,300 full time employees in the Hunter Valley. And the operation of the mine reaches into many other businesses that supply MTW. Thousands of people depend on this mine and if production was to drop, the result could be devastating.

If this minor modification to an existing, 30 year old mine does not get approved, I am worried about what this will mean for local jobs and investment across the NSW mining industry.

Please accept this submission in support of the Warkworth Modification.

Analysis of the position of the Bulga community to existing mines has been brought to conclusion by a decision in the Land and Environment Court.The legal position has been resolved in favour of no more mines in that vicinity.A new application by Warkworth to rehash a new application is unfair in any sense. The NSW Governmnet should not countance in any way a plan to drive rural communities to extinction. Accept what the legal fraternity has decided and in no way should a further expansion by Warkworth be considered.The broader NSW community also has sympathised with the residents of Bulga/Milbrodale and so there has to be a limit of how far mines may expand and how much damage in the wider sense must be considered. NSW has voted no to excessive damage from mining.It is up to the Planning Department and therefore the NSW Governmnet to recognise and honour that general appeal.This application must be rejected in the general terms laid out by Justice Preston in the L&E Court.

We make this submission opposing the proposed expansion of the Warkworth coal mine (DA 300-9-2002-i MOD 6) and requesting that this Development Application be refused.
Introduction.
This Application is to expand the Warkworth coal mine into Saddle Ridge, a Ridge which protects the village of Bulga, and its residents, from the noise, dust and light emanation from the Warkworth mine and which Ridge was protected under a Deed of Agreement executed in 2003.
Rio Tinto, in the Development Application, states that it must obtain approval to mine into Saddle Ridge to "preserve the viability of the Warkworth Mine and maintain current employment as close as possible to current levels".
Within the Development Application Rio Tinto has omitted to declare that Rio Tinto signed a Deed of Agreement in 2003, which Deed provided that Rio Tinto would never open cut mine Saddle Ridge. Further the Deed provided that Rio Tinto would apply to Singleton Council to have Saddle Ridge and the balance of the NDA1 which was designed to protect the village of Bulga and its residents, rezoned as a permanent conservation area.
This Development Application by Rio Tinto is in breach of this Deed of Agreement. Rio Tinto is showing scant regard for the terms of the Deed and indeed appears to be on a course of chicanery in its DA.
It was only this year that the NSW Land and Environment Court rejected an application by Rio Tinto to mine Saddle Ridge. The reasons given by the Judge were sound and comprehensive and must be relied upon by the Department when considering this DA. Properly considering why the earlier DA was refused by the Court will result in the Department refusing this fresh DA for the reasons given by the Judge.
Lack of Consultation.
Rio Tinto has lodged this Development Application without any prior consultation with the residents of Bulga, notwithstanding it is well aware of the views of those residents through the prior Court proceedings and notwithstanding that Rio Tinto met with community representatives only 3 weeks prior to lodging the DA. No notice was given at that meeting that this DA was about to be lodged. The first the community of Bulga heard of the DA was the day before it was lodged. This treatment of the Bulga community is deceitful, arrogant and clearly designed to sideline the community. Any credibility that Rio Tinto may have been gaining is lost completely and most probably irreversibly.
Further, the fact that the DA was lodged just two business days after the SEPP (Resource Significance) was promulgated, underlines the perception of chicanery.
The lodgement of the DA by Rio Tinto, and indeed the acceptance of the DA by the Department, shows a blatant disregard of both the findings of the Land and Environment Court ruling and the Appeal currently before the Supreme Court.
Saddle Ridge.
Saddle Ridge is an important buffer between the noise, light and dust of the Warkworth mine and the village of Bulga and its residents. Rio Tinto should be bound by the Deed of Agreement signed by that Company in 2003 in which it was provided that Saddle Ridge would be preserved as a Non Disturbance Area.
The ecology.
In addition to Saddle Ridge being a buffer, as described, above, if this DA is approved the extension of the mine will destroy an Endangered Ecological Community containing Central Hunter Grey Box-Ironbark Woodland and Central Hunter Ironbark-Spotted Gum-Grey Box forest vegetation.
Noise.
The proposed expansion would bring the mine closer to Bulga, and remove some of the landform which currently shields the town from the worst of the mine's impacts.
Noise from the mine already has a major impact on the mental and physical health of the residents of Bulga.
The mine has been in continual breach of the NSW Industrial Noise Policy, and its current approval conditions, with 800 noise complaints against the mine from local residents last year alone. No increase in noise levels is acceptable.
Whilst Rio Tinto has been fined for exceeding noise limits, more stringent action must be taken to police and reduce existing noise levels from the existing Warkworth Mine.
Further, Rio Tinto is not, even now, complying with the requirement of the NSW Industrial Noise Policy with regards to Low Frequency Noise. This is a serious breach of their current approvals and will no doubt continue with any new expansion, if approved. This continuing breach is being ignored by the Government and is unacceptable. There can be no certainty that in the event of any expansion of the mine that Rio Tinto will comply with their conditions. Indeed, having in mind Rio Tinto's current flagrant disregard of its conditions, it can be expected that they will continue to ignore the noise conditions.
Air quality.
The World Health Organization now classifies particulate pollution as a Class 1 Carcinogen. According to the EPA, 87% of PM10 sized particle pollution in the Upper Hunter comes from coal mines.
Air quality has a major impact on the health of residents in and around Bulga, as well as all other areas around open cut coal mines.
The University of Sydney report of 2013 entitled "Health and Social Harms of Coal Mining in Local Communities states as its key finding that "There are clear indications from the international health research literature that there are serious health and social harms associated with coal mining and coal fired power stations for people living in surrounding communities." A cumulative health impacts study of the Hunter coal industry is needed.
Any further expansion of the Warkworth mine will result in further deterioration of air quality and departmental "Health Alerts", already coming thick and fast, will only increase.
We cannot have the air quality such that it affects the health of our residents, and indeed the developing lungs of our children.
Social impacts.
The behaviour of Rio Tinto in lodging this DA, as described above, is causing great concern, worry and stress to the residents of Bulga. The noise and dust problems together with the potential loss of the Saddle Ridge buffer is causing great distress among the residents.
The 2003 Deed of Agreement must be enforced, Saddle Ridge preserved as a result, and Singleton Council rezoning as required by the Deed. There is no reason, legal or moral, why Rio Tinto shouldn't be required to be bound by that Deed.
Rio Tinto states that there will be coal mining jobs lost if they can't expand through Saddle Ridge, however Rio Tinto is already putting mine employees off for other reasons.
Further, to claim that an expansion is needed now to retain jobs is simply not true. Under the current 2003 approval, mining is available for another 8 years to 2021 without any expansion.
In relation to jobs, the Government must address the benefit of jobs as part of an overall plan for the protection of the community and the environment. Coal mines do provide jobs, but if it is at the expense of the health of the community and the environment, then it is too big a price to pay.
The DA of Rio Tinto provides little or no economic assessment in support of the proposed project and the statements made by Rio Tinto that the expansion is needed to maintain jobs is not supported by anything in the DA.
It is understood that estimates of the employment and economic benefits of expanding the Warkworth mine have previously been rejected by the NSW Land and Environment Court, and as a result anything Rio Tinto says now in relation to this area remains unreliable.
Visual impacts.
The removal of overburden and the increasing overburden dumps will be obvious to the residents of Bulga who live on the more elevated properties. Further the massive excavation into the eastern side of Saddle Ridge will have a major visual impact when viewing the Ridge from the East. Rehabilitation or reinstatement of the Ridge will be impossible. The damage irreversible.
Aboriginal Heritage.
Four known Aboriginal artefacts in the area remain from the seven identified in the earlier Environmental Assessment. If the current DA was approved and the expansion went ahead, the remaining four would be destroyed. Again, these artefacts were identified to be preserved under the 2003 Deed of Agreement. What is the point of executing a Deed of Agreement if the parties to the Deed are going to ignore it? The Government must stand up and require compliance with all elements of the Deed.
SEPP (Resource Significance).
It is pretty clear that this SEPP was promulgated as a direct result of the Warkworth 2013 Land and Environment Court judgment to overcome the problems the decision caused for the mining industry as a whole.
The timing of this current DA suggests that the Government and Rio Tinto hatched a plan to ensure that the decision of the Court would have no precedent value in the future.
It is blatantly apparent that Rio Tinto was in the Government's ear in relation to this SEPP, the SEPP being gazetted on 8th November and the DA lodged only a couple of business days later. It would have taken many months for the DA to be prepared. The Government must protect the health of residents and the environment rather than pandering to the interests of foreign owned mining companies.
Current Court proceedings.
It is submitted that the DA should not have been accepted in view of the pending Appeal against the decision of the Land and Environment given earlier this year. Both the lodging of the DA and its acceptance shows complete disregard and disrespect for the Court process.
Economic justification.
There is no economic justification presented in the DA to justify the claims made by Rio Tinto that the mine must have this expansion into a Non Disturbance Area to "maintain the viability of the operation" and "maintain current employment as close as possible to current levels". These unsupported statements appear to be merely scare tactics signed to frighten the Government into approving the current Development Application.

Please take all the above matters into account and reject the current Development Application.
Stewart Ewen. OAM.Chair.
Hunter Valley Protection Alliance Inc. 27.11.2013

I strongly object to Rio Tinto's application to modify its Warkworth Mine. Application no. DA 300-9-2002-I MOD 6

This application seeks to mine the Saddle Ridge despite a deed of agreement to preserve the ridge as a non-distrubance area. The Saddle Ridge plays an important part in creating a barrier existing mining activity, and the village of Bulga. This barrier helps greatly towards reducing impacts from noise and dust on the nearby residents.

Rio Tinto claims that one of the justifications for this modification is to help maintain current job levels. Short-term job supply cannot be used as a basis to override the long-term health and well-being of the village of Bulga. The village of Bulga has been in existence, and can continue to exist, far beyond any mining lease Rio Tinto will ever hold.

Approving this application will increase the impacts of noise and dust on the village of Bulga, impact the overall air quality surrounding environment, inevitably forcing residents to move away from the Village.

An approval would provide zero benefit to the local Village of Bulga and would only assist Rio Tinto in its long-term strategy to remove all obstacles in the way of its mining operations. With the people gone; Rio Tinto would have free reign to mine until the landscape was completely devastated. This would leave behind hundreds and hundreds of years of environmental problems for future generations to deal with.

May I remind the NSW Government that the vast, vast majority of company profits from Rio Tinto DO NOT stay on the shores of Australia, are not invested within Australia based projects nor benefit our economy. And; sucks away billions of tax-payer dollars each year in government subsidies.

"Keep Australia Beautiful". Don't bugger Bulga.

I object to the application and these are the reasons:
1.The area proposed to be mined is within the area previously denied by the NSW Land and Environment Court. It is within an area known as 'Non Disturbance Area 1' in a deed signed by the Mine in 2003 asa condition of an approval then given but by some deceit, never executed by the Mine.
2.This area was to be a Permanent Conservation Area to offset the environment detriment made by the rest of the mining activity and to be a noise and dust shield for the Village and residents of Bulga and Milbrodale.

How many cracks of the whip does this mine get? This is Modification 6! When will it stop? I have nothing against mining, but here is my suggestion to the mine - they can mine til 2023 then go underground.

I object to the application and these are the reasons:
1.The area proposed to be mined is within the area previously denied by the NSW Land and Environment Court. It is within an area known as 'Non Disturbance Area 1' in a deed signed by the Mine in 2003 asa condition of an approval then given but by some deceit, never executed by the Mine.
2.This area was to be a Permanent Conservation Area to offset the environment detriment made by the rest of the mining activity and to be a noise and dust shield for the Village and residents of Bulga and Milbrodale.

How many cracks of the whip does this mine get? This is Modification 6! When will it stop? I have nothing against mining, but here is my suggestion to the mine - they can mine til 2023 then go underground.

As a wife of an employee at Mt Thorley Warkworth I am in favour above the proposed extension for the mine

At the start of this year my husband and I along with our 18 month son relocated to the lower hunter valley for my husbands work.
it now really scare and concerns me as to what our future holds without this extension as we all know that if not granted he will loose his position.

Speaking with other householders in our street nearly everyone is directly or indirectly employed with industries associated with the mining industry and we all feel that by blocking this extension it sets a precedence for future development of the mining industry which is the heart and soul of the hunter valley.

Put simply the hunter valley is mining and without there will be no hunter valley in years to come

please consider the future of our kids and grandkids when evaluating this proposal

Dear fellow citizens and country folk of New South Wales, as a member of the local community from the Hunter Valley I wish to put my full support behind the proposed modification of Warkworth Mines disturbance limit for the West Pit comprising a 350 metre extension to allow provision of mining workings such as roads and water management infrastructure to continue ongoing viability of operations.

This development consent approval is critical to the immediate future of Mount Thorley Warkworth that has more than 1300 employees and the hundreds of businesses that supply goods and services to the mine throughout the region including state-wide.

The local communities continue to receive support and benefit in numerous ways from mining operations, especially noteworthy in particular is in providing apprenticeship opportunities to our local youth and also the opportunities provided in the employment of numerous specialised trade careers and professional occupations.

The benefits to the NSW economy have been profound and the ongoing viability of Mount Thorley Warkworth Mine will continue to benefit the State of New south Wales economy including the future planned investments into building stronger, smarter and more sustainable communities.

Rio Tinto has demonstrated outright disregard for its past promises and agreements. Why should we believe what they have to say now? Although Rio Tinto states that it must get approval to mine into Saddle Ridge to "preserve the viability of the Warkworth Mine and maintain current employment as close as possible to current levels", Rio Tinto signed a Deed of Agreement in 2003 promising that it would never open cut mine Saddle Ridge and that it would apply to Singleton Council to have the Saddle Ridge and the balance of the NDA1 that was to protect Bulga, rezoned as a permanent conservation area.

If Rio Tinto can so easily break promises, with both of these important undertakings it can therefore not be trusted to honour any of the promises it is making with this amendment application.

The Mining of Saddle Ridge was rejected by the NSW Land and Environment Court in 2013. This decision must be upheld and the new application to mine into Saddle Ridge must be refused.

Dear Minister,

I support Coal & 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.

MTW provides a stable income for many employees in the Hunter Valley. And the operation of the mine reaches into many other businesses that supply MTW. Not proceeding with this modification would put these jobs at risk. My husband and I are both employed through the mining industry and we are concerned about what this approval would mean for us. Not only for MTW but for mining in general within the Hunter Valley.

This modification is requesting an extra 350m to allow the mine to run productively for another two years at its current production. To be honest I do not understand all the fuss - it really is just 350m and then like all other mines MTW will have to undergo a rigorous and lengthy planning application for any further expansion.

We all need certainty - Community, Business, Government and Families, 4 + years is a long time to wait considering we are back at where we started.

Please accept this submission in support of the Warkworth Modification.

Regards,
Belinda