6 July, 2022
New Acland lands another approval
Last Wednesday (29th June), New Acland Mine was issued the Environmental Authority (EA) by the Queensland Department of Environment and Science (DES) - taking the miner a step closer to reopening.
State member for Condamine Pat Weir said he’s asking for Minister Scott Stewart to grant the necessary approvals.
“We need the mining lease and we need the associated water licence so we can get these workers back to work,” he said.
Mr Weir said he’s hoping this can get sorted within weeks.
“It’s not like he’s starting with a blank sheet of paper.
“We’ve had all sorts of appeals and everyone’s had their say.
“We have gone through the most rigorous approvals process of any mine in Queensland’s history, so it’s been done to death.”
New Hope Group Executive General Manager and Company Secretary Dominic O’Brien said the
rest of the approvals should now be issued quite promptly.
“We’re thinking months, but we’re hoping weeks,” he said.
“This has taken fifteen years to walk down the corridors of power in Queensland.
Mr O’Brien said the mine’s closure has had negative impacts beyond the mine site.
“I was in Oakey this morning (29th June) and dropped into the bakery and was talking to some of the people in there.
“They’re very disappointed and said they have seen a decline in the town.
“The local butcher doesn’t sell as much meat anymore.
“These are the flow on effects.
“Sporting clubs have declined and some of the numbers at the schools may have declined as well.
He said that the mine has already been operating in accordance with very strict conditions for quite some time.
“On the other side of this building is a control room that takes live data and live noise feeds from a number of monitoring stations from around the mine and we can react immediately to any change in noise condition.
“We have experienced operators who sit in that control room and they can hear the equipment at work and if there’s some suggestion according to the data that certain equipment is starting to exceed a particular limit, they can act immediately.
“We’ve got everything in place that we need to be able to operate in accordance with the conditions that have been imposed upon us in the latest round of approvals.”
Oakey Coal Action Alliance Secretary Paul King said he was disappointed with the Queensland Government’s decision.
“It’s devastating that the Palaszczuk Government has approved an environmental authority for the New Acland mine expansion today,” he said.
“At a time of global food insecurity, it doesn’t make sense to risk some of the biggest dairy farms in the state with this mine.
“Dairy farmers in the area produce 10 million litres of quality milk each year.
“New Hope still needs a water licence for this project and it’s now up to Water Minister Glenn Butcher and his department to step up and reject the application.”
