The New South Wales (NSW) Government will legislatively approve MACH Energy’s planned Mt Pleasant coal mine expansion – within the next two weeks – because the High Court of Australia overturned the project’s development approval in early October.
MACH Energy will be able to produce up to 16.5 million tonnes of coal annually at Mt Pleasant until 2032 under a statutory consent, NSW Premier Chris Minns and Natural Resources Minister Courtney Houssos said on 19 October.
But the NSW Government plans to limit Mt Pleasant coal sales to curb the mine’s downstream carbon emissions. The limits will align with those attached to Hunter Valley Operations’ (HVO) recent mine extension approvals, according to Minns and Houssos.
HVO can only sell coal from its extension projects to markets with greenhouse gas emission-reduction policies consistent with the Paris Climate Accords, the NSW Independent Planning Commission (IPC) said on 30 September.
The High Court of Australia blocked Mt Pleasant’s expansion on 7 October, largely because the IPC failed to impose approval conditions to reduce the project’s downstream emissions to the greatest extent practicable.
“[The NSW Government’s] commitment to tackling climate change hasn’t changed, but neither has our commitment to protecting working people,” Minns said on 19 October. “We have a responsibility to cut emissions … but we can’t turn our backs on the workers and families who rely on [coal mining] jobs today,” Minns added.
MACH Energy has hired hundreds of workers since the IPC first approved its Mt Pleasant expansion in 2022, largely because it expected courts to back the project. “Without urgent intervention, [370] mineworkers could have been out of a job by Christmas,” Mining and Energy Union (MEU) President Grahame Kelly said.
MACH Energy will need to maintain current staffing levels at Mt Pleasant until 2032 under the NSW Government’s planned statutory approval, Minns and Houssos said.
The MEU and MACH Energy have welcomed the NSW Government’s decision to approve the Mt Pleasant expansion project. Legal challenges to the project have created uncertainty for local communities in recent years, both groups said.
By Avinash Govind