KEPCO Australia officially opened their Mudgee Community Information Centre, for residents and visitors learn more about the Bylong Coal Project.
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The proposed mine is for open-cut operations commencing first and lasting approximately ten years and underground mining commencing thereafter, recovering up to 6.5 million tonnes of raw coal per annum. And is expected to employ up to 665 people during peak construction and up to 470 people during peak operation.
The CIC provides printed, audio-visual and interactive resources on the project, with staff on hand to answer questions.
“The main reason we’ve opened this centre is to demonstrate to the community that we’re very serious in regards to engaging people in this region,” chief operations officer of KEPCO Bylong Australia, Bill Vatovec, said.
“We’re still a little bit away from our final approval, but the fact is we need to connect from the grassroots level in the community to allow people to come into the centre and ask about the project.
“So we’ll be able to give them a good indication in regards to our investment in the region and also the benefits the region will have in this coexistence.”
KEPCO already invested more than $700 million to lay the groundwork for the project.
And Mr Vatovec said, “the Bylong Coal Project Community Investment Fund has recently reached the milestone of more than $500,000 of local investment”.
“We will soon reach $600,000. The Community Investment Fund has supported many community groups and initiatives in Mudgee, Kandos, Rylstone and Bylong.”
Where the project is at
The Bylong Coal Project has been been returned to the NSW Department of Planning and Environment (DP&E) following issues raised by the Planning and Assessment Commission (now the Independent Planning Commission, IPC).
Chief operations officer of KEPCO Bylong Australia, Bill Vatovec, is optimistic of a late 2019 commencement of construction.
“It’s been a long journey, from seven years ago when we first acquired the authorisations and we’ve gone through our EIS and initial Planning Assessment Commission hearing,” he said.
“Now we’re awaiting an assessment report from the DPE, which we will be receiving some time in September we’re hoping.
“And then there’ll be a determination hearing by the Independent Planning Commission.
“If that’s successful, and we meet the judgement of the independent panel, then we would expect a development consent to be received so time before the end of the year.
“There’s a significant post-approvals that are required for a project of this size and scale, we’re talking about a two-year construction period and 23 years of operational mine life with all product going to Korea.
“But construction is anticipated to commence in the second half of next year, subject to that development consent.”
