The Planning Assessment Commission’s rejection of the amended Coalpac proposals for coal mines at Cullen Bullen will be damaging for the Lithgow economy, NSW Minerals Council CEO Stephen Galilee has said.
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“Coal has been mined in the region for well over a century, and the project was strongly supported by the Lithgow Council, local MP Paul Toole, and the local community, who will bear the brunt of this outcome,” Mr Galilee said..
Coalpac had applied to reopen and extend its mothballed Invincible Colliery and Cullen Valley open cut mines which were placed in care and maintenance in 2013.
The extra coal was to have supplied EnergyAustralia's Mount Piper Power Station.
The three commissioners said the mines would have "intruded" on a region of pagoda rock structures with "high conservation value" as unique landforms but also as habitats for threatened species.
About 300 hectares of stone formations and forest were at risk.
The Commission found the proposal posed “unacceptable risk” to the pagoda structures in the vicinity of the open cut pits and above the proposed highwall mining areas, and that the need for the proposed extensions did not outweigh the environmental costs and impacts of the extension.
"Mining in the vicinity of these landforms has been found to be unacceptable in the past and the Commission has been unable to find any compelling new evidence to support a different outcome in this instance," the report said.
Coalpac has said it is extremely disappointed with the outcome and the impact it will have on Lithgow’s mining community.
They will now deal with the fallout of more job losses in the area as the loss of the consolidation project sends the company into liquidation.
But environmental groups applauded the decisions and called on the Baird government to declare the Ben Bullen State Forest, site of the Coalpac mine, a conservation area.
"This decision will assist to protect this stunning landscape.
"This area could become an iconic tourist destination right next door to the Blue Mountains," said Lithgow Environment Group president Dr Richard Stiles.
EnergyAustralia, though, said the Coalpac decision made the future of the Mt Piper power plant uncertain.
The mine expansion was the power station's "most viable option" for coal supply, the company said in a statement.
"In light of this decision, we will look at alternative options for coal supply at the same time as assessing our longer-term commercial position in the current energy market," Luke Welfare, EnergyAustralia's general manager for NSW, said.
