This project received New South Wales government approval in late September after overcoming a review by the Planning Assessment Commission – an independent panel of experts which rejected extension projects for the Drayton, Invincible and Cullen Valley coal mines last month.
The extension work, which will duplicate an existing rail loop and use a conveyor corridor for overburden emplacement, will disturb an additional 262ha with no change made to the mine’s impressive, approved production capacity of 32 million tonnes per annum.
The relevant federal application was filed on Tuesday.
Last week BHP announced another 150 retrenchments, effective late in February, at this giant open cut mine – taking the job losses at Mt Arthur to more than 500 so far in 2014 and leaving a workforce of around 1500.
