Ulan Modification 6 was approved on the 23rd of May 2025:

This is despite the fact that the mine plan and placement of longwall panels has not been finalised. The placement of roads, ventilator fans and other surface infrastructure is still a work in progress. The area and site of vegetation clearing, impacting threatened species habitat and requiring biodiversity offsets has not been finally identified.

The NSW Department of Planning has approved the Glencore Ulan Mine expansion through conditions with 9 different options for biodiversity impacts. This is deeply unacceptable.

Extending the life of the mine to produce up to 20 million tonnes of coal per year until 2035 cannot be justified when current production is well under half that volume and is not meeting the promised public economic benefit. Instead it is ensuring more expensive extreme weather events and increasing rates of extinction.

This approval is a clear demonstration of the inherent bias within the NSW Government and Department of Planning to continue approval of coal mining expansion  despite the impacts.

Changes to the original project proposal:

The Mod 6 proposal was amended during the assessment process in response to issues raised by Government agencies.  This shifted longwall mining back from Mona Creek, a tributary of the Talbragar River in the Murray-Darling Basin. It has reduced predicted coal extraction from 25 million tonnes to 18.8 million tonnes. However, the impacts of the project are still too great, and are still being finalised.

Independent Expert Advisory Panel on Mining (IEAPM) report findings:

1. Additional monitoring bores required to measure groundwater interception
2. Inadequate trigger levels for impacts on groundwater systems
3. Inadequate monitoring of impacts on private bores
4. The groundwater model is inadequate for predicting long-term impacts
5. Significant risk of drawdown beneath Mona Creek in all underlying groundwater systems
6. A formal peer review of the groundwater model is required

Glencore's response to the IEAPM findings.

Key issues with Glencore response to IEAPM:

Significant issues were raised by the NSW Independent Panel mainly concerning subsidence and impacts on groundwater. The Glencore response is totally inadequate proposing that any additional monitoring should occur after mining has commenced. Monitoring damage after the fact is not a sustainable way to protect water sources and the environment.

Problems with impacts on groundwater:

• The groundwater model does not capture delayed drawdown responses post mining – when they are most likely to happen
• Impacts on private bores post mining is not modelled
• Additional reporting is required for each type of impacted water source
• Long term impacts on groundwater over time are not being measured
• Additional mapping is required to identify Groundwater Dependent Ecosystems relying on shallow groundwater

The Water Management Plan including Surface Water Management and Groundwater Management must be completed before a determination can be made on this expansion of the Ulan Mine.

The current process for approving large underground mining operations, like Ulan Mine, allows for groundwater models to be ‘recalibrated’ or adjusted if drawdown parameters have been exceeded or varied. This approach does not investigate the implications of the maximum long-term impacts on the groundwater system over time.

The Federal Independent Expert Science Committee (IESC) made significant comments:

"Modelled predictions of water interception from Ulan Mine have consistently underestimated impacted volumes. The Independent Expert Scientific Committee has limited confidence in the groundwater model used to predict impacts from this mine on surface and groundwater."

Ulan Mine should not be expanded, Mod 6 must be rejected:

• The Glencore Ulan Coal Mine crosses under the Great Dividing Range and takes water from both the Hunter River catchment and the Murray Darling Basin.
• This mine already has approval to extract 20 million tonnes of coal per year until 2033. Modification 6 plans for an additional 16.3 million tonnes of coal to be extracted until 2035.
• This mine is predicted to take over 10,500 million litres (4,400 Olympic swimming pools) of water from this sensitive landscape by 2027.
• Groundwater is the key source of baseflows to rivers in this region.
• Water impacts from underground mining will continue for thousands of years into the future, if not forever, because groundwater systems are destroyed through drainage and collapse into the underground void.
• The amended Ulan Modification 6 will still damage an additional 634 hectares of landscape through subsidence, water, biodiversity, and cultural heritage impacts.
• There is no economic analysis of the impacts of climate change. There is no justification for this project to be approved.
• Glencore is producing 11.3 million tonnes of coal at the Ulan Mine when the current approval allows for up to 20 million tonnes per year.

Handy Links:

Glencore's response to the IEAPM findings
IEAPM Report
Glencore’s Amended Report for Mod 6
IESC Mod 6 comments
Glencore's Response to Submissions
Glencore Mod 6 Department of Planning Page
MDEG Response to Glencore
DPE-Water additional advice on Ulan Mod 6
Department of Planning and Environment 'requesting additional information'