In release on the IPC website today its states 'After an extensive conciliation process in the NSW Land and Environment Court, the Independent Planning Commission has reached agreement with the Applicant for the Dartbrook Coal Mine Modification 7 regarding amendments to the modification request and conditions of approval.'

This statement has angered residents and community groups opposed to the reopening of the mine who say the IPC has let them down, despite receiving 1300 objections to the original project, and is leaving it up to others to take on the legal challenge.

Australian Pacific Coal (AQC) purchased the property in 2016 from Anglo American, who had placed their Dartbrook underground mine, located on the site, in care and maintenance in 2006 .

Two years later AQC lodged a development application to reopen the mine and use bord and pillar methods to extract six million tonnes of coal a year until 2027.

However, the IPC's determination of the project in August 2019 refused to extend the life of the mine for a further five years until 2027 as requested by AQC due to questions concerning the economic viability of the project.

In November last year AQC lodged an appeal against the IPC decision in the NSW Land and Environment Court.

An on site meeting between the mine's proponent AQC Darbrook Management Pty Ltd and the IPC was held in July, 2020.

As part of the Land and Environment Court's conciliation conference the applicant has provided a Response to Contentions to the Commission.

The main change being proposed by AQC to their original application is the use of the Hunter Tunnel rather than moving the coal by truck, the handling and processing of the coal using existing infrastructure and the proponent not mining the Piercefield Seam to reduce subsidence and groundwater impacts.

According to the IPC statement the Commission and Applicant have reached agreement after consideration of the public submissions the Commission received regarding the Applicant's Response to Contentions in the proceedings. The Applicant's Response to Contentions was published by the Commission on its website and submissions accepted for more than four weeks.

The Commission is now making public its signed agreement with the Applicant to ensure that interested individuals and groups are aware of the parties' position before the Court makes final orders on or after Tuesday November 10, 2020.

As the Commission has already benefitted from the community's submissions on the Applicant's Response to Contentions (as well as submissions received prior to its determination of Modification 7), the Commission will not be accepting further submissions on the signed agreement.

The terms of the decision include:

In September this year eight properties owned by AQC that include two large scale dairies were listed with Meares and Associates real estate agents for sale by tender that closed on October 29. Properties listed include Goroka Dairy, Kayuga Homestead Farm and Ladino Park with the latter two having significant water allocations from the Hunter River.

Questions were being asked as to the viability of the Dartbrook project given this sale process and speculation was rife that one of the major partners in the project wishes to quit their interest in company.

With price exceptions well above $20 million for all the properties now listed it could be asked if the original investors hope to recoup their initial outlay from this tender process?