Mod 6 - Expansion of Coal Mine

I stongly belive this application should be approved in order to maintain employee positions and service providers in the Hunter Valley at a time when the mining industry is in a significant downturn.
The inconvience of a few people is far outweighed by the thousands of jobs involved with just the Mount Thorley Warkworth mine and hundreds of millions of dollars spend in the region by employees and the mining company.

To whom it may concern,

I wish to voice my support for the extension that has been proposed by the Mount Thorley Warkworth Mine. As I am currently employed at the mine this extension would allow my family to continue to live in the Hunter area through employment. Currently my family and I live in the area due to this employment and as such we support the local community through the costs assossiated with living in the area. My children are enrolled in child care services as are many of the employees at the mine (or local schools), which without the support of the mine employees that are currently employed here would reduce the number of employees required through the schooling system. This would also flow through any smaller businesses that are in the area as a reduced number of workforce requires less support from community businesses. Like most employees here we would have to relocate for work which will place further stress on the supporting businesses. This will no doubt have a damaging effect the number of families in the area that survive of mining personnels incomes in the local area.

I strongly believe that coal industry in NSW needs to be supported by the state government and community for better and stable economic future of the state. The current consent request is very important for the employees working at Mount Thorley Warkworth minesite as it determines the future of this minesite in short term together with assurance of jobs to over 1300 people working here.

i would like to see MTW continue operations to provide me and my families future. The mine also provides support and income for the surrounding communities are we as providing thousands of jobs both onsite and through the flow on effect with businesses throughout the area

due to my age if the mine was to close early it would make it difficult for me to find future employment as this has been my lifetime career

The consent approval is important not only to the 1300 employees, but also numerous contractors and companies that depend on Mount Thorley Warkworth's future viability. This approval will add value (economic and social) to the local and wider communities.

My family depends on me making an income. My chosen field is mining so I fully support the increase to this mining consent and hope that MTW can prosper for many years to come.

I hope my husband can continue to work at MTW. His income from the mine is essential for our family to exist.
In fact, if the mine were to close or not get the consent to extend, my family and another 1400 families would struggle to find work in the Hunter Valley. Where would we go then? How would the economy be long term in the Hunter Valley without coal mining?
Mining jobs support a lot of industries including the wine and thoroughbred industries.

It's about time people realize that the Hunter valley is a mining community and the main income and employment is mining, not the selfish yuppies who live on their little hobby farms that give nothing back to the community except for despair and hart ach of the families who depend on the mines for a living. When you build near an airport you don't complain about planes flying overhead, when you build near a motor way you don't complain about traffic noise, you away from the area and let some else live there it's called progress. The mining lease for the mine has most likely been in place a lot longer than most people who have lived in Bulga, and most people who have moved to Bulga have done so knowing that the mines are in that area. The environmental damage that the mine is causing is non-existent on the large scale of things, all the land the mining lease covers has already been clear by famers over a hundred years ago, no native bush left, have a look on Google earth the mines are a pin prick compared to the national parks and farm land of the surrounding areas, I look on Google earth and in my conclusion is that the farmers have done more damage to the environment than any mine in the hunter valley, the mine spend a lot of time and effort doing habitation of disturb areas, how much rehab do the people of Bulga do? I drive through every week and I haven't seen one silt fence. The Bulga Township will always be there as the mining lease stop short of the Bulga township, there are plenty of people who if they could afford it would live in Bulga in a heartbeat. So to all the people who are against the mine you nothing more than a group of selfish people who are only thinking of themselves and not at all of the communities or the countries interest.

I arrived in Singleton 23 years ago with a construction crew to build a piece of Mining Equipment for RW Millers Mine. I was a semi-skilled itinerate Labourer, I never left Singleton and mining has been my life. I have worked as a contractor at most of the local mines but none more so than Mt Thorley Warkworth, from humble beginnings to now a Mechanical Engineer, Home owner and maybe even close to being declared a Honorary local ( I Think That Takes 25Yrs), So do I Support Mt Thorley Warkworth Expansion, whole heartedly my future, my families future, my Career and well-being are linked to Mt Thorley Warkworth, Singleton and the Hunter.No where else in this country can you live this sort of lifestyle, in safe friendly environment with old style country attitudes, wineries, horse stud farms, concerts and still drive just out of town and earn good money at safe responsible mine. New South Wales Needs Mt Thorley Warkworth

I was shocked to receive advice the night before this submission was made public, that the MTW application was being submitted. So much for community consultation and consideration for major stakeholders.
This is typical of the actions of Rio Tinto over the past years.

I object in the strongest terms to this expansion of the mine, on the following grounds:-
1.The area to be mined is the subject of a deed signed in 2003 setting it aside as a Permanent Conservation Area. The area known as NDA1 is important in the protection of our village from the noise and dust created by the activities in the mine and for the protection of endangered ecological and /birdanimal species. The fact that the MTW Management did not submit the deed to Singleton Council to have the land rezoned, as required by the 2003 approval, shows that they cynically and deceitfully never intended the Deed to apply. This is in clear breach of their obligations under the 2003 approval.
2. The area proposed to be mined is part of an area that the NSW Land & Environment Court has denied them approval to mine on a number of social, ecological and economic grounds. Again, cynically the Coal & Allied have not even had the courtesy to await the result of their appeal to the NSW Supreme Court before submitting this application.
It would seem to me that to apply to expand into an area already denied by the Court is an act of contempt
3. The residents of the village of Bulga are constantly bombarded by by exceedences of the 2003 approval in respect of noise, dust and overpressure or faulty blasting and suffer because the mine does not comply with requirements for rehabilitation or roadworks - If this new application were to proceed, there is NO guarantee that MTW would comply with any or all conditions attached to it, as they do not now comply and it seems the DOPI are unable or unwilling to enforce compliance.
4. Although we have spoken to the Management on many occasions about their lack of consultation with key stakeholders (their near neighbours) . It appears that they deliberately set out to keep us uninformed about this new plan. Indeed at a Community Consultative Committee Meeting held only two weeks before this Application was submitted, no mention was made of it!! Neither was any contact made with the Bulga Milbrodale Progress Association, the key residents representatives body in the area
In addition adjoining mines, the Singleton Council and adjoining businesses were not given the courtesy of any discussions about it, clearly demonstrating the disdain with which the Management and Rio Tinto hold the community.
5. Government Officers who are responsible for the approval have little or no understanding of the impact of mining on the lives of local residents, and seem not to care. It is clear that many employees of Rio Tinto will be encouraged or even ordered by the Management to send in comments favourable to the expansion. Bearing in mind that 60% of employees in Coal & Allied Operations in the Hunter Valley do not reside in the Singleton postcode and those who do in the majority live at least 12 kilometers east of the mine, where they do not suffer the deleterious effects of the operation, their support must be weighted against , or at least heavily discounted..
6. It seems that Rio Tinto and its senior management are holding a gun to the head of the Government,by threatening that a large number of jobs will be at risk if the application does not proceed. This is nothing more than a load of tosh, Under the 2003 approval the mine can continue its' current operation until 2021. If the mine can not continue until this time employing the current workforce, the fault is that of the Rio Management who failed to adequately plan. This failure should not be blamed on the local residents or other objectors, but squarely where it belongs.
7. In all discussions, talks, negotiations with the mine and its management, we have said that we would have NO objection to the underground mining of the seams presently proposed, we still have no such objection and would, in fact, support an application to mine these seams underground. It is the vandalism of open cut mining to which we object, because of the consequences of noise, dust, visual pollution and destruction of the landscape.
8. In any "rehabilitation" of open cut mined areas, the whole ecology of the soil and understrata is destroyed. Minimal topsoil is put on top of piles of smashed rocks and the understrata is anything but normal. Normal structure would be topsoil, small rocks & clay, then heavier clay, then more rocks. This allows natural flow of water from the surface to aquifers and carries minerals from mulch & rainfall into the soil. In the current methods of rehabilitation, goodness knows where subsurface moisture goes and we do know that it is generally unsuitable for grazing for many years, perhaps up to 200 years, as the soil lacks the ability to retain minerals and nutrients, thus depriving grazing animals of the necessities for proper growth. In addition the natural landforms are destroyed, leading to absence of natural watercourses, thus lessening flows of runoff water to existing streams. As water is one of our most precious resources, it is unconscionable that open cut mining should be allowed to disrupt surface and sub surface aquifers in this way.

for the community

To the Minister

Dear sir, I am an 24 year employee of Mount Thorley Warworth mine. I have seen people come in and go over this time. During this time I have seen how the employees of the mine support the local businesses from their employment here, often buying or building homes in the area where all benefit.

I have also seen great delite from Apprentices, Grad Students and Trainees when they have been selected for employment at MTW , it would be very disappionting if these things were not taken into consideration.

There is already a skills shortage in the Austrailia with more manufactoring industries closing down every day, it is getting harder and harder for the youth in the valley to find work, especially work where you can develop skills for the future.

Please consider this when you deliberate on the future of many compared to the few that object to the extension.

Yours Sincerly
Shane Saunders

The International Energy Agency forecasts the global use of coal will incease by 2% per annum until 2035 & that it will become the worlds largest source of energy by 2017. Australia and specifically NSW, is in the privileged position of being able to contribute to this demand and generate many direct and indirect benefits to it's populus as a result. Mount Thorley Warkworth holds a significant and valuable reserve of coal in the land it owns in the and it is applying to mine. There is infrasturcture in place to mine, process and rail this material to port. Granting the operation a licence to access this valuable reserve and position itself to continue to strongly contribute to the local, regional and national community makes absolute sense.
I support this application.

Dear Director, Mining Projects
I support Coal and Allied's application to gain access to 350m of company owned land to avoid a drop in production and potential job losses.

As am employee I am concerned for not only my own job security, but for that of the 1300 other employees at Mount Thorley Warkworth Mine. I daily see how constrained our mining operations are without access to this 300m extension. The mine's production will drop by approximately 1 Million tonnes of coal next year due to the lack of working space for operations. If the mine can't continue to operate at 12 Mtpa, jobs will be lost.

As a member of the Singleton community I am concerned about the impact further job losses will have on the town. House prices and rental incomes have already dropped as a result of job losses in the industry. What next? Will businesses start shutting down? What services are we going to lose?

It needs to be recognised that investment from the mining industry drives the local economy. We can't afford to have large, long term mining operations like Mount Thorley Warkworth ramping down production due to consent issues.

Kind Regards
Zara Boyce

I write in support of the above application for a modification of the Mount Thorley Warkworth development consent.

This is a mature mine that has been operating in an established industrial precinct for over 30 years, surrounded by other long established large coal mines. It is not a Greenfield operation in a new area. The modification is for a modest expansion into land already owned by the mine and is necessary to keep the entire operation viable.

Coal mining is essential for its contributution to the local, State and national economy, directly and indirectly. The government should be doing everything in its power to keep these mines operating at a time of considerable economic uncertainty.

As an employee and live in the local area I do see the benefits the jobs and the industry bring into the area both directly and indirectly.
I support this submission for the extension.

I support mining in NSW.

I am concerned about the impact of government policies on our mining industry. Mining contributes a great deal to our state. It is the biggest export industry in NSW, provides tens of thousands of direct jobs, provides billions in royalties, and supports jobs in other industries like manufacturing. New layers of regulation and an increasingly complicated planning system threaten the industry in NSW and put our future prosperity at risk.

Mining in NSW is facing the toughest conditions in 20 years with many jobs lost in the last six months and many more could follow. While mining regions like the Hunter bear the brunt of these job losses, Sydney will also be affected as investment and revenue are lost to NSW

thi s is important to my family as we have relocated for the postion .

The MTW extension will give me more secure future to my family in the Hunter Valley.

I have worked at MTW for many years as did my father and now my son.
MTW as an organization have always acted responsibly caring for its sorounds always working to lesson its impact on its neighbours.
I would like to see MTW continue as a bussiness as it has great economic impacts on this area and provides employment for many people.