New South Wales Clears Expansion of Ulan Coal Mine

The state planning department of New south Wales (NSW) on Monday greenlit a proposal to expand the operations of Ulan Coal Mine, one of the largest coal mines in Australia despite concerns over the project’s potential impacts on the environment and endangered native wildlife.

The Ulan Coal Mine near Mudgee in the New South Wales central west has been allowed by the authorities to increase its underground operation.

With the latest approval, the Ulan Coal Mine will be able to extract a further 18.8 million tonnes of coal and extend the life span of the site by an additional two years until 2035. The mine has approval to extract almost 330 million tonnes of ore over the next two decades.

Glencore Australia, which owns the coal mine, welcomed the state planning department’s decision. The modification will provide ongoing employment opportunities for people at Ulan Coal Complexm Glencore’s spokesperson said.

The company employs 660 people at the Ulan Complex and contributed $1.7 billion to the economy in 2023 alone.

Environmental Concerns

It may be recalled that the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water has identified 21 native species that could suffer significant impacts as a result of the development, with 17 hectares of native vegetation to be cleared.

Biodiversity assessment reports found that the endangered koala, brush-tailed rocky wallaby and a number of microbats among the native species were likely to experience direct impacts on their habitat.

The existing and extended mining area contains rocky sandstone cliffs that have been identified as suitable habitat for threatened microbat species. More than 630 hectares of land is expected to gradually sink in the surrounding area due to the project.

Surveys found the large-eared pied bat and large bent-winged bat within the subsistence zone, which they used for roosting and breeding. The report also found subsidence-related rockfalls would impact breeding caves and roosting colonies, having an adverse impact on the endangered species.

A condition of the approval will need Glencore Australia to put in place a comprehensive bat monitoring program and acquire offsets for predicted impacts on threatened microbat habitat.

However, the Department of Planning, Housing and Infrastructure said that Glencore Australia must identify any bat sites above mining areas, with the operations to be separately assessed and approved by the department prior to mining.

Conditions Imposed

The NSW Department of Planning determination said that the development’s impacts on native wildlife could be avoided, managed and offset and has imposed 13 conditions on the approval to mitigate impacts on biodiversity, water, greenhouse gas emissions and Aboriginal cultural heritage.

The assessment determined that emissions from the project would reflect less than 0.1% of the state’s greenhouse gas targets in 2030 and 2035.

Glencore Australia has to prepare a Greenhouse Gas Mitigation Plan, in consultation with the Environment Protection Authority, within the next six months.