Local Mines

Latest Updates

PEABODY:

Wilpinjong: Next steps in the multiple expansions

 

Peabody Energy has lodged a Scoping Report for a large new Wilpinjong Continuation Project surrounding Wollar village.  The Planning Secretary’s Environmental Assessment Requirements (SEARs) have been released here.

The project will be assessed as a new State Significant Development with environmental assessments already underway. This is before the current expansion, known as Mod 3, has been determined.

Meanwhile the application for a new exploration licence (ELA7005) to the south east is yet to be decided. Under the NSW current coal policy, Wilpinjong Mine could continue to expand all the way to Bylong.

Our Key Notes on Mod 3:

  • Peabody Energy is yet to provide a response to further questions asked by EPA, Heritage and Water agencies. The Department of Planning will then determine an outcome for the proposed expansion to the boundary of Wollar village.
  • The application for the Continuation Project validates the community's concern that Mod 3 is the first stage of a larger eastward open cut expansion.
  • The ongoing cumulative impact to climate, threatened species habitat, cultural heritage, prime agricultural land, flows to Wollar Creek and groundwater and to the amenity of the district through more blasting, dust and noise has not been adequately assessed.

Key Links:

YANCOAL:

Moolarben UG4 extraction approved:

 

The NSW Department of Planning has approved Yancoal's extraction plan for the final stage of Moolarben Underground 4 (LW9–14) — pushing longwall mining into the most fragile section of the Goulburn River gorge, within 200 metres of the river bed. The approval was granted despite critical groundwater, geological and ecological information still being outstanding.

This "staged" or "suck it and see" approach hands responsibility for protecting one of the region's most iconic landscapes to a multinational mining company with a track record of delayed monitoring and missing data.

This means the threats we have long warned about are now imminent:

  • A "nil impact" condition of approval that Yancoal admits cannot be guaranteed
  • Valley closure and subsidence destabilising fragile sandstone cliffs
  • Irreversible damage to The Drip, Arch Rock and Corner Gorge
  • Loss of public access to the Brett Whiteley mural and walking track
  • Significant increases in greenhouse gas emissions
  • Clearing of koala and threatened species habitat
  • Long-term groundwater drawdown and creek impacts
  • Damage to cultural landscapes on Wiradjuri Country
  • Inconsistency with NSW climate targets and energy transition plans

Monitoring is not protection - and the only penalty for breaching conditions is a fine. Like Juukan Gorge, no fine can undo the destruction. Subscribe to our newsletter and tell NSW Ministers this approval must come with independent, real-time oversight.

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GLENCORE:

Glencore resubmits Mod 6, key objections remain unanswered:

 

Following the November 2025 LEC ruling overturning Ulan Mod 6, Glencore has resubmitted an amended proposal and Response to Submissions (RtS). While the amended RtS shows marginal improvement (Mod 8 is now acknowledged and updated GHG targets included) MDEG finds responses to our key objections remain procedurally compliant but substantively evasive. Our key objection — that Mod 6 and Mod 8 must be assessed together to capture their true cumulative impacts — remains entirely unengaged with.

Rather than lodge a new project application, Glencore resubmitted on the same modification pathway — effectively leapfrogging the LEC ruling by reverting to the original 2008 approval as its baseline, avoiding the full scrutiny and third-party appeal rights a new project requires. MDEG's position remains: Mod 6 and Mod 8 must be assessed together as a single new project.

Our key objections include:

  • Cumulative climate impact: fragmented assessment hides true emissions scale
  • Scope 3 emissions from exported coal still not adequately assessed
  • No cumulative water assessment across Ulan, Moolarben and Wilpinjong
  • Cumulative threats to microbat habitat on sandstone escarpment unassessed
  • Lack of cumulative climate impact: Inconsistency with NSW Climate Change Act targets and Net Zero Commission findings
  • You can't have it both ways on jobs: Glencore argues against cumulative assessment of impacts, yet its economic justification aggregates the entire UCC operation. Mod 6 alone — a two-year extension employing an unchanged workforce — contributes negligibly compared to the jobs the CWO REZ urgently needs.

Key Links:

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Sign the letter Against Moolarben OC3

Mudgee Coal Alert

An initiative of Mudgee District Environment Group with the support of Lock The Gate.

Mudgee Coal Alert is a community action group in the Upper Hunter opposing new coal expansions in the Mudgee region.

Our focus is on three large coal mines which operate North of Mudgee on Wiradjuri land: Yancoal's Moolarben Mine, Glencore's Ulan Mine and Peabody's Wilpinjong Mine. Their approvals allow them to produce a combined volume of up to 58 million tonnes per annum (mtpa) until 2038.  The three coal mines were the largest producers of coal in NSW for 2023. Yancoal's Moolarben Mine topped the list producing 14.2 million tonnes of coal. Closely followed by the Glencore's Ulan Mine with 11,3 million tonnes and Peabody's Wilpinjong Mine with 11.2 million tonnes.

Climate science and the International Energy Agency have declared that to ensure a safe climate future no more new coal can be mined.

All three mines are currently planning to expand!

If these expansion plans are approved it will make a mockery of NSW Government Climate Change target of 50 per cent emissions reduction on 2005 levels by 2030.
The target of net zero emissions by 2050 will be impossible.

Any expansion of fossil fuels is dangerous and irresponsible.
Don’t turbo charge climate change!
It is time to put a stop to the further expansion of coal in the Mudgee Region.

Stop Coal Expansion in the Mudgee Region!

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Three large coal mines operate North of Mudgee on Wiradjuri land: Yancoal's Moolarben Mine, Glencore's Ulan Mine and Peabody's Wilpinjong Mine. The mines intersect farming land, the Central West Orana Renewable Energy Zone and awe-inspiring National Parks.

The three mines were the biggest producers of coal in NSW in 2023 with a combined production of 36.7 million tonnes - equivalent to 89 MT CO2e. The overall CO2e could be as great as 1.7 billion tonnes with current approvals and proposed expansions. This is three times Australia’s emissions from all sources.

All three mines are planning to expand! Yancoal’s proposed Moolarben OC3 expansion will produce an additional 30 million tonnes of coal, Glencore’s Ulan Mod 6 will produce an additional 16 million tonnes of coal and extend mining operations up to 2035, Peabody’s Wilpinjong Mine is planning an extension to produce an additional 34 million tonnes of coal.

Continuing to approve expansions of mines this size makes a mockery of the NSW target of 50% reductions by 2030. The target of net zero emissions by 2050 will be impossible. The NSW Government has recently admitted that they are already struggling to meet these legislated targets under the Climate Change (Net Zero Future) Act 2023.

The three mines are also within the Central West  Orana Renewable Energy Zone. Competition for workforce, accommodation and services are very high. There is no justification to expand coal mining in a region with  fast-tracked renewable energy generation.

To ensure a safe climate future,  no new coal can be mined.

Did You Know?

They Don't Pay Tax

The three multinational coal companies operating in the Mudgee Region: Glencore, Yancoal and Peabody Energy pay minimal to NIL tax in Australia while making significant profits that are sent offshore.

They Threaten Tourism

Mudgee is NSW top tourist destination. These mines are adjacent to the Goulburn River, the National Park and Munghorn Gap Nature Reserve (an Important Bird Area). They threaten the leading natural tourism attraction – The Drip Gorge.

They Threaten Our Water

Current coal operations have approval to draw a staggering 24,000 million litres of groundwater from the landscape every year – that’s more than 9,000 Olympic swimming pools!

They're Expanding

The coal mine operations mining leases (MLs) cover a combined area of approximately 300 km2 equivalent to the distance between Chatswood and Penrith. Additional 165km2are held under exploration licences (ELs).

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