Coalpac is seeking planning approval for the Coalpac consolidation project, involving two open cut and high wall coal mines in Central West NSW.

Plans for the proposal include consolidating development consents and project approvals at the mines so approval regulates mining across both sites, as well as expanding open cut and high wall mining areas to extract an additional 108 million tonnes of coal.

Merging the operations would result in a total of 3.5 million tonnes per annum of thermal coal being produced from the mines.

The proposal includes a biodiversity offset strategy, which would potentially allocate more than 1755 hectares of land as biodiversity offsets.

Coalpac is proposing to employ up to 120 operational staff and additional contractors for the 21-year life of the project.

Deputy director-general Richard Pearson said the company’s first environmental assessment was submitted in July 2011 and did not meet requirements.

It originally omitted the “project’s potential impacts on biodiversity, natural, historic and Aboriginal cultural heritage, noise, air quality and groundwater”

“After liaising with the department on a number of issues, the proponent submitted a revised EA in mid-January which has now been deemed adequate,” Pearson said.

“After the Easter public holidays, we will be giving the community an extended eight-week period in which to have their say, given the significant scale of the proposal, the strong public interest in the proposal and the overlap with the April school holidays.”

The EA is being put on public display by the NSW Department of Planning and Infrastructure from Tuesday, April 10 until Friday, June 1, 2012.

The submissions and proponent’s response will be considered as part of the department’s assessment of the project.

Following this, the department will make a recommendation to the Planning Assessment Commission.