2 June, 2022
New Acland Stage 3: "We’re talking weeks"
After a fifteen year battle, the New Hope Group has knocked over the first domino to gaining approval for Stage 3 of the Acland Mine.
Speaking to media on Monday afternoon at the Acland mine, Site Manager Dave O’Dwyer said the New Hope Group had received really good news last Friday.
“The Coordinator General’s Office has handed down the Change Report,” he said.
“The Change Report was a really important step for us moving forward towards approval.
“The Change Report has now been sent through to DES (Department of Environment and Science) and forms the real basis to construct the EA (Environmental Authority).”
The DES can now incorporate the Coordinator General’s stated conditions from the Change Report and are responsible for issuing the EA.
This will then allow New Acland Stage 3’s Mining Leases and Associated Water Licence to be granted.
“The EA is the next big step we have in achieving our overall approvals to start the mine up again,” Mr O’Dwyer said.
“Really great to see the Coordinator General’s team move through the process.
“We’ve been in consultation with them for a number of months to make sure that the process was moving smoothly… and great to see them come through with the Change Report in a timely manner.
“This rolls on from the news we had from the Land Court late last year and the Land Court pointed towards approval as well.
”The Change Report lays out the framework for what needs to go in the EA.
“It’s the first domino really to fall, and the rest should come along after.
“The timelines are a little bit unknown.
“They [DES] need to go through their processes first.
“Then it’s stepping through the various ministers to get the lease and the water licence.
”We’re talking weeks and months now.
“But we’re confident we’re talking months and not years now.
“Being knocked back would be a big disappointment because we feel we’ve done everything we need to do.
“We’ve already been through the EA process once before, so we feel we can have an EA that covers the needs for the mine here and the community as well.
“We feel it would be a miscarriage of the process to get this far and to get knocked back.
“We would love to see the government be strong in their processes and not just for us but for investment in general in Queensland to make sure their processes are fair and equitable to the businesses trying to start up.
“Just to make sure no one else ends up in a constant loop that we’ve been in.
“We definitely did not want to be the test case for this, but we kind of feel like we are the test case for it.
“We would just like to see this process come to an end and everybody get on with life.
“I’m confident the ministers will make a decision on the information that’s been put in front of them.”
“We wouldn’t have fought this far just to give up on it.
“We’ll continue to go through the process if hurdles are put in front of us.”
New Hope Group CEO Rob Bishop said the Queensland Government can now approve New Acland Stage 3.
“Local workers, contractors and local businesses will benefit to the tune of $1 billion over the life of the project,” he said.
“At the peak of construction, there will be close to 600 local workers on site.
“Throughout the life of the project, the permanent workforce will be approximately 400 full-time roles, made up of Darling Downs locals.”
However, there’s strong opposition to the mine’s approval from the Oakey Coal Action Alliance (OCAA).
OCAA Secretary Paul King has said the group plans to meet with Resources Minister Scott Stewart this Friday to challenge the mine’s water licence.
