Glencore is currently seeking state and federal approvals for the biggest coal mine expansion ever proposed in NSW.
The Hunter Valley Operations (HVO) coal mining project is located 24km north west of Singleton in the Hunter Valley NSW and consists of two open-cut coal mine sites separated by the Hunter River, HVO North and HVO South. The project is a joint venture between Yancoal (49%) and Glencore (51%), with Glencore managing the mining operations at these mine sites.
Glencore proposes to extend its massive Hunter Valley Operations project for another twenty years (north and south) until 2045 and 2050.
Advice from NSW’s Environment Protection Authority confirms that HVO is the largest coal project ever proposed in the state’s history.
This mammoth, polluting HVO Continuation proposal is a carbon bomb. It is a clear and present danger to Australia and New South Wales and must be stopped.
In this critical decade for climate action when the world needs to drastically reduce emissions to prevent runaway global warming, the HVO Continuation Project proposes to extract an estimated 716 million tonnes of new coal and generate 29 million tonnes of on site emissions, which would count towards NSW’s carbon budget.
The approval of this project would amount to an extraordinary 1.2 billion tonnes of lifecycle emissions, including downstream emissions equivalent to more than 8 times New South Wales’ current annual emissions.
This project is clearly inconsistent with the goals of the Paris Agreement and the NSW Government’s Climate Change (Net Zero Future) Act 2023.
Over its 70 year lifespan this mine has already had enormous consequences for the region’s groundwater and surface water resources, including:
The impact of the existing HVO mine and the proposed expansion on water resources in the Hunter Valley is profound, particularly when considered cumulatively with other nearby mines.
The proposed HVO mine expansion would remove a huge amount of water from the Hunter River catchment by capturing rainfall and run-off and via its licensed extraction, potentially affecting downstream users, the environment and the Kooragang Island (Hunter estuary) wetlands, a declared Ramsar wetland.
Towns adjacent to the HVO project including Singleton and Muswellbrook are already experiencing very poor air quality due to many existing coal mining operations. In 2020 there were numerous exceedances of daily average air quality standard for PM10 particulate matter at all Hunter Valley air quality monitoring stations and maximum daily averages were also recorded that are many times the standard.
Environmental Assessments conducted for new and expanding mines adjacent to these towns are failing to accurately describe unacceptable cumulative air quality impacts from coal mining in the region. An approval of the HVO Continuation project until 2050 would ensure local communities are subject to the adverse health impacts of air pollution from coal mining until mid-century.
The expansion would also result in large swathes of critically endangered ecological communities being destroyed, including 120.4ha of the highly fragmented Central Hunter Valley Eucalypt Forest and Woodland Critically Endangered Ecological Community (CEEC).
Proponent: Yancoal and Glencore
Timeline: 25 year extension to 2050
Total coal: 716 million tonnes
Greenhouse gas emissions in NSW: 35.16 million tonnes
Total downstream emissions: 1,167 million tonnes
Total lifecycle emissions: 1,202 million tonnes
This project will clear 397 hectares of native vegetation and extend the operations of one of the biggest coal mines in the country by 20 years.
It will use up to 7,900 megalitres of water per year for operations and washing coal.
Combined with other extensive mining operations, it would cause 5 metre drawdown of the alluvial aquifer of Wollombi Brook and also induces water loss from the Hunter River.
The Hunter Valley has already experienced 164 air quality alerts in 2023, and the huge exposed pits of Hunter Valley Operations are a big contributor to air pollution in the district.
To Premier Chris Minns
Cc Ministers Penny Sharpe, Paul Scully, Courtney Houssos
Don’t pour fuel on the climate fire
Citizens of NSW are already living with the devastating effects of the climate crisis, in the form of fires, floods and heatwaves that threaten our families.
But coal companies want to pour fuel on the fire. They have plans for more than 17 new coal mine expansions in NSW that would produce lifecycle greenhouse gases 17 times as big as our state’s current annual emissions.
The proposed Hunter Valley Operations Continuation Project (HVO) near Singleton in the Hunter Valley would be the biggest coal project in NSW since the Paris Agreement in 2016.
We’re asking you to put climate action first, scrap pro-coal policies that facilitate coal approvals and stop greenlighting coal expansions.