The South Korean Government (Republic of Korea) is the majority owner of KEPCO, the company behind the proposed Bylong Coal Project.  Therefore, they have a big say in what happens next with Bylong Coal Project.

The Bylong Coal Project was formally refused consent by the NSW Independent Planning Commission on 18 September 2019.

KEPCO has made it clear that they are currently considering three options for the project – whether to challenge the refusal in court, to re-submit a revised project, or to abandon it altogether.

We need to make it clear to them that the community wants to see it abandoned altogether.

We’ve written to the Korean Embassy asking for a meeting with farmers to discuss the future of the Bylong coal project, but so far they have declined. We want KEPCO and the Korean Government to formally abandon the coal exploration titles and sell the land back to agriculture. The future for the Bylong Valley is as a global hub for regenerative agriculture and Natural Sequence Farming, not coal mining.

We'll be there at 10.00am on Friday 25 October to communicate:

• Our strong support for South Korea’s moves to shift from coal power to renewables. It is clear that extracting 124 million tonnes of thermal coal from Bylong up until 2045 is incompatible with that.
• What a very positive move it would be if KEPCO withdrew completely from the Bylong coal project, abandoning the exploration licences and selling the land for agriculture so Bylong can become a hub for regenerative farming.
• How financially reckless it would be to keep pursuing a project that has already been rejected and will almost certainly just result in the Korean Government throwing good money after bad.
• How disappointed we are that to date, the Embassy has chosen not to meet with farmers affected by the Bylong project (the Embassy has twice declined to meet with a delegation from Lock the Gate Alliance and impacted farmers).