The mining house has previously reduced the proposed mine life by five years as part of revisions to the project since the New South Wale Planning Assessment Commission rejected it in October for lacking an environmental buffer to nearby horse studs.
Yesterday Anglo said it wrote to the state government with the offer of a binding agreement to exclude Anglo from seeking any further open cut mining activity to the present scope of its Drayton South project.
The proposal included relinquishing parts of the relevant exploration licence to create a coal exclusion zone encompassing the Coolmore and Darley studs – with Anglo saying the zone could be setup via amendments to planning instruments available to the state government.
“This would prohibit any party from seeking development consent for open cut coal mining in the exclusion zone,” the miner said.
Anglo Coal CEO Seamus French said the company’s position has always been that there was no need for NSW to choose between protecting 500 jobs at the Drayton mine and the future of the local equine industry.
“Both the Premier and the Planning Minister came to Drayton South earlier this year see first-hand how we plan to ensure that mining and agriculture continue to work side-by-side in the Hunter Valley delivering jobs and economic growth,” he said.
“The PAC made it clear Anglo American needed to stay behind the second ridgeline and our current proposal has done just that. In doing so, we have eliminated any chance of dust, noise and visual impacts on the horse studs.
“Our decision today to formally exclude areas beyond that ridgeline from any future open cut coal mining removes any doubt about ‘project creep’ and future impacts on the studs and reinforces our commitment to genuine co-existence.”
Anglo retrenched 45 at the Drayton mine in February, blaming delays in getting approval for the extension project.
The extension project will provide another 15 years of mining at a rate of 6 million tonnes per annum run of mine.
Anglo is making its third attempt to get state environmental approval for Drayton South with the first PAC knock back occurring in December 2013.
