The NSW Government has approved its sixth coal mine expansion since coming to power, mere days since record flooding, supercharged by the burning of fossil fuels, wreaked havoc on Mid North Coast communities. See department email below.
The Sanjeev Gupta-owned Tahmoor expansion project, 25 km from Campbelltown, is the fourth coal mine approval since the NSW Net Zero Commission warned that NSW is not on track to meet its emission reduction targets for 2030 or 2035.
Lock the Gate Alliance says the Tahmoor expansion will make meeting climate targets even harder and is a blow to communities who are bearing the brunt of the fossil fuel-driven climate crisis.
NSW Labor has approved six coal mines that when combined would be responsible for estimated 340 million tonnes of climate pollution (lifetime), more than three times NSW’s total annual emissions from all sources. See below table.
Tahmoor coal mine is the second most polluting coal mine in NSW, with high volumes of methane emissions. However, the company was not proposing to implement best practice methane abatement for this expansion.
This approval allows Tahmoor to operate for an additional nine months in 2032, to access a new long wall and to release an additional 5.8 million tonnes of carbon emissions. Longwall mining at Tahmoor is causing damage to homes in the nearby village of Bargo.
Lock the Gate Alliance NSW Coordinator Nic Clyde said, “The mining of coal is supercharging the climate crisis and worsening catastrophic weather events like the flooding that has devastated communities north of Newcastle recently.
“People are suffering and homes have been flooded, but it’s business as usual with a sixth coal mine expansion in NSW - despite coal being a major contributor to the climate crisis that is leading to increasingly extreme weather.
“It’s appalling to see the NSW Government extend the second most polluting coal mine in NSW given the severe warming effect of methane emissions which are 84 times more powerful than carbon dioxide.
“This is the sixth coal-mine expansion approved by the Minns Labor government despite the Net Zero Commission warning that NSW is not on track to meet any of its legislated climate targets and that coal expansions are a key reason why.
“The Minns Government needs to decide whether it is on the side of communities or big coal mining companies. So far, it is siding with the coal companies and communities are paying the price.”
ENDS
Background:
The approval comes just months after financially-troubled owner GFG Alliance announced plans to sell the mine. Around the same time, workers at Tahmoor were temporarily stood down because the company was unable to pay its suppliers.
Subsidence caused by mining at Tahmoor is damaging homes in the nearby village of Bargo. The company reviewed its last expansion in 2020 to reduce the number of impacted properties from 751 homes to 143.
In 2020, Sangeev Gupta claimed his companies would be carbon neutral by 2030.
Since it was elected in 2023, the Minns Government has approved:
|
Project |
Date approved |
Total Scope 1 GHG Mt CO2~e |
Total Scope 2 GHG Mt CO2~e |
Total Scope 3 GHG Mt CO2~e |
Total GHGs (lifetime) Mt CO2~e |
Approval until |
Additional ROM coal proposed (Mt) |
|
22/01/24 |
0.79 |
0.07 |
61.8 |
62.66 |
3 yrs (2033 - 2036) |
28.1 |
|
|
01/07/24 |
0.074901 |
0.0004 |
2.64 |
2.71 |
2026 |
1.8 |
|
|
16/04/25 |
2.49 |
0.33 |
190.20 |
193.02 |
4 yrs (FY27 - FY30) |
89.8 |
|
|
24/04/25 |
1.53 |
0.08 |
33.06 |
34.67 |
18 months - end 2026 |
18.2 |
|
|
22/05/25 |
0.10 |
0.04 |
41.679 |
41.81 |
2 yrs (2033-2035) |
18.8 |
|
|
27/05/2025 |
0.97 |
0.03 |
4.8 |
5.8 |
9 months (2032-2033) |
2 |
|
|
Totals |
340.67 |
158.73 |