BHP Billiton must be forced to fill in the legacy voids from the Mt Arthur coal mine at Muswellbrook to avoid putting the Hunter River at risk for hundreds of years into the future, according to the Lock The Gate Alliance.
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The company’s planned “final voids” at the mine – which will be larger than the Sydney CBD and 180 metres deep – will act as toxic groundwater sinks, reducing river flow and increasing salinity for generations into the future.
This is what Lock The Gate’s Hunter coordinator Steve Phillips told a NSW Planning Assessment Commission (PAC) meeting at the Muswellbrook RSL Club on Tuesday.
The PAC met to assess BHP’s plans to extend the life of the mine by four years, to 2026, and increase the size of the mine by 260 hectares.
“BHP Billiton plans to get as much coal out of the ground as possible and then get out of the Hunter Valley,” Mr Phillips said.
“The company’s legacy in the Hunter will be a massive toxic lake, hundreds of metres deep and several kilometres long, that will continue to pollute the Hunter River for the next 250 years.
“The NSW government must not allow BHP to leave us this toxic legacy.
“This is the biggest coal mine in Australia and one of the richest mining companies on the planet.
“Surely it is not too much for the public to ask BHP to fill in the holes at the end of the mine's life.”
Lock The Gate also presented the PAC with the findings of its new report Unfair Shares: How coal mines bought the Hunter on the cumulative impacts of the region’s coal mines on the quality and quantity of water in the Hunter.
One of the report’s eight recommendations is that the NSW Government discontinues its practice of approving new and expanded coal mine proposals even when a mine proponent has failed to show there is enough water available for the project.
“Mt Arthur is a very thirsty coal mine,” Mr Phillips said.
“It consumes 6.5 billion litres water per annum, most of it used to wash coal, with 1.8 billion litres used in dust suppression.
“When the next big drought strikes and general security water licences are reduced to zero, as they were in 2007, our research shows that BHP Billiton will not have enough water to operate the Mt Arthur mine.
“Does this mean the company will skimp on its dust suppression regime, or cease operations?
“How can the state government keep approving new and expanded coal mines without proof there is enough water to keep the operations going?”
Among the recommendations of Unfair Shares is that the rehabilitation bonds collected by the state government are increased to equal the full costs of rehabilitation, including the infilling of mine voids and the restoration of original landscape contours.
“If it is too expensive for a multi-billion dollar global mining company to fill in the hole when they finish a coal mine – then that mine is uneconomic and should not go ahead,” Mr Phillips said.
“It’s that simple.”
