31 August, 2022
Mining lease granted
Stage 3 of New Acland mine is one step closer to being approved after the state government announced on Friday that it has now granted the relevant mining lease - leaving only a water licence to be approved before the mine reopens.
New Hope Group CEO Robert Bishop said it was excellent news to finish the week.
“It’s been a long eight months of dealing with the government departments since the third Land Court hearing, which was held at the end of last year,” he said.
“We’re not quite there yet, we still need the associated water licence.
“All the information needed for the associated water licence has been with Minister Butcher’s department for some years now and we’re hoping the government supports its existing processes like Minister Stewart’s department did and a quick decision is made.”
The mine faces harsh criticism from an opponent, namely the Oakey Coal Action Alliance (OCAA), which says the project will contaminate groundwater and that drilling will impact nearby dairy farms and blacken filters.
However, Mr Bishop denies this criticism and said it’s not well understood how the mine sources its water.
“We don’t actually take any water from the local area, we pay a significant amount of money to take recycled water from the Toowoomba Council.
“It’s important to understand Acland has been mining for twenty years with no groundwater issues and we’ve had more than a handful of technical experts support that it has no impact.
“I refute anybody who says we have a negative impact on groundwater.
“We’ve actually got an award-winning dairy farm which operates next door to the mine.
“It has no issues obviously as it’s award-winning, and again we’ve had no issues with groundwater for local farmers or the local community.”
“I’d like to think early next calendar year we can be in a position to be digging coal and getting it out,” Mr Bishop said.
Mr Bishop also responded to further criticism that people experienced health issues as a direct result of the mine’s activities, including asthma, bleeding noses and other respiratory conditions.
“I can’t comment on that because I’ve never come across any factual evidence which would lead to that,” he said.
“The coal we dig here is an exceptionally hard coal, so it doesn’t have the usual dust that comes off coal.”
New Acland Mine general manager Dave O’Dwyer said the company will be looking for 400 long-term employees to fill roles such as operators, maintainers, engineers, geologists, admin staff and safety professionals.
“There’s no fly-in fly-out, no camper accommodation,” he said.
“Everybody lived locally and commuted to work each day, which we found was a really great, steady workforce.”
Other high profile figures in the community who shared their support for the mine include State Member for Condamine Pat Weir, Toowoomba Region Mayor Paul Antonio and TSBE Senior Project Manager Reagan Parle.
“I’ve been calling for this for some time, as recently as the last sitting of parliament,” Mr Weir said.
“One would hope that the associated water licence is not far behind this.
“It’s a boost for the whole region and also for the rail line all the way from here down to the Port
of Brisbane, this has impacted on jobs all the way through.
“My concern is that this mining lease was announced late on Friday in a two line press release, that is staggering.
“I have never seen a project that is touting 600 jobs announced in a two line media release.
“The minister has not stood up and explained how he arrived at this decision or his reasoning for delaying it for so long.
“The premier has not stood up, the deputy premier has not stood up and for 600 jobs that is simply breathtaking.”
TSBE’s Mr Parle said he’s delighted to hear that New Hope has progressed to the next stage of its expansion.
He said there will be additional infrastructure built to support the soon-to-be upgraded railway line to Brisbane.
Mayor Antonio described the approval as welcome news and stated that the Oakey community deserves a decision.
“I am pleased to see the uncertainty around the future of the project is almost over,” he said.
“Council has great faith in the future of Oakey and is confident that the proposed resumption of New Hope Group’s operations will underpin an even brighter future for the wider Oakey community.”
However, Oakey Coal Action Alliance’s Paul King said the group will continue the fight to stop the mine from reopening.
“This is as disturbing as it is disappointing,” he said,
“We will not give up - we cannot give up - and we will prevail. We must.
“This is not the end, just the end of the beginning of this fight.”
Mr Weir said he was concerned with the potential for another legal battle to start.
“We know it’s coming, the opponents have said they will lodge appeals and keep this tied up in court for as long as they can,” he said.
“They don’t need to win, all they need to do is tie it up in court as the premier said she will not approve this until all court action is finalised.
“This will breath life into this community, who so desperately needs it.
“If this is not followed through, this is very simply a cruel hoax on the people of Oakey.
“This has been tied up in court, land court, judicial reviews, on legal technicalities that have been dismissed and we are back to where we are on the same conditions that were there years ago, so this is a legal warfare.
“So now we could have the EDO (Environmental Defenders Office), who is funded by the state government, running a legal battle against the state government - that’s where we stand.”
Mr Bishop agrees that the biggest obstacle for the mine is getting caught up in legal cases, not following environmental requirements.
“I don’t think the environmental aspect has been the thorn in our side,
I think there is an ideological minority group which have opposed us,” he said.
“We live in a democratic society and that’s fine, but I think there’s got to be a point at which the department’s need to move on and make a decision.
“I think from our perspective, environ-mentally we are a very responsible operator.
“We’ve recently announced we’ve had the first mining lease and environmental authority relinquished after one of our existing pits was fully rehabilitated.
“The rehabilitation out at Acland is benchmark, we are very proud of how we treat the environment.
“The coal coming out of this pit is low-emission, high calorific value coal which the world needs now to transition.
“It’s important to have a transition [to renewable energy] and we feel Acland can play a part in that.
“We’ve got approval for thirty years and the coal we plan to mine out should last ten to fifteen years, so this project has an exciting future.”
