PLANS are on display for a new open-cut coalmine at the United Colliery, to be run as a joint venture between United and the neighbouring Wambo mine.
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The new mine is predicted to create work for another 250 mineworkers and flows from a 2014 decision by the owners of the adjoining United and Wambo coalmines to combine a number of their mining tenements. The two mines are about 15 kilometres west of Singleton, near the Golden Highway.
United’s managing shareholder is Glencore, with the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union holding a 5 per cent stake. Wambo is controlled by a subsidiary of Peabody Energy, with a 75 per cent stake.
Having filed for “Chapter 11” bankruptcy protection in the US in April, Peabody’s parent company said last month that it expected to emerge from bankruptcy protection with the support of its lenders.
Operating United Wambo as a 50:50 joint venture managed by Glencore, the companies are hoping to extract up to 10 million tonnes of run-of-mine coal a year over a 23-year mine life, leaving two final voids, one at Wambo and one at United.
In the environmental impact statement on display until September 22, the companies say that if the project does not proceed, Wambo open-cut will shut by 2020, affecting the jobs of about 250 people. Wambo underground would continue on its existing approvals.
United’s underground colliery shut in 2010 and the companies say the proposed United open-cut would create work for another 250 people at peak production.
All up, the two pits would produce about 176 million tonnes of “run-of-mine” coal , with 110 million tonnes from the new United open-cut and 66 million tonnes from the existing and approved Wambo open-cut.
The companies say the combined operation would add $3 billion to gross state product over the life of the project, with $369 million in royalties to the state and a “net benefit to NSW” of $414 million. Historic Wambo House would be unaffected.
