Community & Business
7 December, 2023
35 jobs for Christmas
New Acland Mine has sent its first shipment of coal overseas and is looking for more workers by Christmas, as a Land Court hearing over terms of the Water Licence in the Manning Vale West Pit looms.
New Acland Mine (NAC) General Manager, Dave O’Dwyer said the latest round of offers will see the workforce number grow to more than 150 employees.
“We’re searching for talented, local operators and maintainers who want the lifestyle New Acland Mine provides,” he said.
“We’re also on the lookout for professional roles and administration staff.
“Over the past year, plenty of ‘new-old’ faces have returned to New Acland Mine, complementing the dozens of fresh faces who make up the growing team.
“It’s fantastic these workers can wave goodbye to the fly-in, fly-out lifestyle, which is common at many Queensland mines, and be home with the partners and children every single night.
The company has been running trains from Jondaryan and has just sent its first shipload of Stage 3 coal off to Japan.
“(It’s being sent) to one of our returning customers who have great confidence in our product,” he said.
“There’s plenty of work on the mine site and plenty in the district which is great to see.”
Mr O’Dwyer said the company is waiting for approval start mining in the Manning Vale West Pit, with a final decision to be made early next year.
“It’s moving along at a slow pace,” he said.
“We’re working with our legal team and to make everything’s in place and as soon as we’re called in, we’ll be ready.”
Concerns over the use of basalt are a sticking point in the case.
“It’s around the final landform and how that works in with our rehab liabilities.
“Our interaction with basalt pushes us away from where we can mine.”
Paul King of Oakey Coal Action Alliance said the existing water licence imposes two key conditions on New Acland Mine, firstly that NAC will be required to ‘make good’ water drawn from basalt aquifers.
“This ‘basalt water’ tends to be the ‘sweetest’ (it is ph neutral and has low mineralisation), and the basalt aquifers are among the shallowest,” he said.
“Therefore the water is highly accessible and desirable for all uses, farm and domestic.
“If NAC’s appeal is successful there will be no limit on the amount of this water that can be interfered with, and OCAA fears this will have a severe impact on its availability to local farmers.”
The second condition NAC is challenging is the requirement to fill voids to above the standing groundwater level.
