As one of the nation’s largest coal producing regions, the Hunter Valley has remained steadfast in response to mounting global pressure over the mining of thermal coal for electricity.
IT’S been a hive of activity in the Hunter Valley over the past few months.
The region’s coalfields contain largely thermal and soft coking coal. Mines near the eastern edge of the basin are spread along the Hunter Valley from Newcastle in the south to Muswellbrook in the north, most of which are open-cut.
Both soft coking and thermal coal products are produced from mines such as Hunter Valley Operations and Bulga.
With the NSW Independent Planning Commission giving United Wambo the green light on August 29, the region will now be bolstered by another massive open-cut pit.
Meanwhile, Mount Arthur has welcomed a new chief executive in Adam Lacey, and the Newcastle Coal Infrastructure Group (NCIG) is expecting a record year of coal tonnage through the Port of Newcastle.
But it hasn’t exactly been smooth sailing for the region in recent months, with complaints about air pollution stirring locals to demand action from the Federal and State governments as pollution levels soared over 700pc above the national standard.
And the state continues to burn, with Whitehaven Coal the first big player forced to lower its guidance due to the conditions created by one of the worst fire seasons on record.
United Wambo
United Colleries, a 50:50 Glencore and Peabody JV, has pushed its $381m, 150mt, 23-year-minelife United Wambo mine one step closer to production after it was given the go-ahead by the NSW Independent Planning Commission (IPC).
United Wambo will be operated by Peabody, combining the Wambo and United coal mines, which had been under care and maintenance since 2010, to form one ‘Super Pit’ mine.
The JV partners told the IPC that the mine would create about 500 full-time-equivalent jobs and could extract about 10mt per year operating 24/7.
In a somewhat unprecedented move, the IPC imposed a first-of-its-kind condition on the mine that says any coal extracted from the United Wambo pit may only be sold to nations that have ratified the Paris Climate Agreement, or have policies in place to reduce greenhouse gasses.
Although the NSW Minerals Council called the conditions curious, it said that the approval was a positive step for the industry as a whole, and for the Hunter Valley’s economy.
But, as was expected, the approval was met with backlash, with some community groups raising concerns about noise issues, vibration and blasting, air quality and disruption to biodiversity.
However, the IPC determined that United Colleries had secured land-based biodiversity offsets which protected biodiversity in the locality, and that scope one and two emissions were minimised as far as practicable.
Newcastle Coal Infrastructure Group
The Newcastle Coal Infrastructure Group (NCIG) is expecting the largest throughput of coal tonnage through the coal terminal at the Port of Newcastle for 2019, as production at both new and established mines ramp up, with the operator expecting 57mt, up from 53-54mt from the previous three years.
The NCIG operation, which commenced in 2010, services the Hunter Valley, Newcastle, Gunnedah, Gloucester, and the Western Coalfields of NSW.
Its main customers are Banpu Public Company, BHP, Idemitsu Kosan, Peabody Energy, Rio Tinto, Whitehaven Coal and Yanzhou Coal.
Chronic air pollution
In 2019, air quality standards breached the national standard of PM10 and PM2.5 levels by more than 700pc.
Concerns about air pollution in the valley came to a head on November 18, when a community meeting in Singleton was called to seek action on what residents called ‘chronic’ air pollution.
Singleton GP Bob Vickers presented information about the deaths in the region caused by air pollution, and local residents joined in to voice their concerns.
Dr Vickers said that action needed to be taken to remedy the situation.
“Air pollution is getting worse in Singleton and it is affecting people’s health,” he said.
“Close to 90pc of our coarse particle pollution comes from open but coal mines.
“We’re not going to improve this situation unless and until the state government makes the mines act.”
However, the State Government claimed the air pollution was a weather issue and not a political one.
It said that the bushfires and drought that had been raging across NSW were two major factors contributing to the poor air quality, however stopped short of commenting on the cumulative affect of dust from open cut mining.
NSW premier Gladys Berejiklian said that her government was taking the matter very seriously.
“The Government always works with parties to ensure good air quality and safety across the state, and of course the Upper Hunter is included in that process,” she said.
“Issues affecting health — whether it’s air quality, water quality, any other factors that might impact our citizens — our Government takes very seriously, and if there’s anything we can do more or better, we will.”
A burning issue
The Hunter Valley has also been the scene of much controversy in recent months, as devastating bushfires spread across the region: activity that has been blamed on climate change, which in turn has been caused by the reliance on fossil fuels, critics have claimed.
The Hunter Valley is the world’s largest export basin for thermal coal used in power stations, and the Illawarra escarpment contains Australia’s oldest mines for coking coal used in steelmaking.
This region was built on coal, which overtook iron ore to become the country’s most valuable export last year.
Electoral votes in the Valley, one of the few parts of Australia where coal is a major employer, were cast heavily towards Scott Morrison’s government in the 2019 election.
The government’s challenge is to counter opinion that climate change and increasing carbon burnoffs are causing fires, while aggressively trying to revive coal exports.
On a catastrophic fire day for NSW in November, the Liberal-National government had planned to push through a bill to weaken the state’s planning laws, in favour of coal and gas corporations.
A snap action outside NSW parliament that day drew hundreds of people from across the state, who made their opposition to the bill known and expressed support for the NSW Rural Fire Service, which is battling the flames with shortages of equipment and personnel due to budget cuts.
Whitehaven Coal was savaged by investors after it was forced to lower its guidance by 7-15pc as a result of the fires, knocking 11pc off its market capitalisation.
The company reported that it could not find qualified drivers for the heavy equipment on the mine, and that business-as-usual had been interrupted by dust, heat haze and smoke.
