For the residents of Bulga the news Yancoal Australia is buying Rio Tinto’s local coal mines may provide be a welcome reprieve from their years of conflict over the expansion of the Warkworth mine.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Yancoal is proposing to buy Mount Thorley Warkworth and Hunter Valley Operations for $3.3billion.
“The departure of Rio Tinto from the Upper Hunter will not be seen as a loss by local residents,” said John Krey, president Bulga Milbrodale Progress Association (BMPA).
“To the residents of Bulga the purchase by Yancoal is an opportunity to help the environment, continue employment, save the village of Bulga and improve the reputation of miners in the Upper Hunter.”
“The new owners can, if they wish to, stop the destruction and start the long process of cleaning up the Upper Hunter air quality. This can be achieved with an underground operation. Jobs will continue and the government will reap their ill-gotten gains by annual royalties.”
For seven and a half years the residents of Bulga and Milbrodale have been working hard to prevent the expansion of the Warkworth mine towards Bulga.
Mr Krey said despite winning on two occasions in the Courts the collusion between the State Government and Rio Tinto stepped around those decisions and in November 2015 the Planning Assessment Commission approved the same expansion the courts rejected.
“The news that Rio Tinto has sold its interests in the Hunter Valley for $3.3 billion confirms that the company was not interested in protecting 1300 jobs but boosting its sale value for the mine,” he said.
“Yancoal's reputation and performance in caring for the environment and residents of nearby villages is not known but will be tested in the next 12 months.”
The next big test for the residents is the vote at the next Singleton Council meeting on February 20 when Rio Tinto once again ask for the closure of Wallaby Scrub Road.
The company has argued the road needs to be closed to allow for Warkworth’s expansion to proceed.
Six times Council have rejected their requests to close the road built by convicts in the 1830s.
“Having lost the battle to stop the expansion local residents are supporting the Singleton Council in saving the heritage Wallaby Scrub Road. Both the State Government and Rio Tinto have shown little regard to our European and aboriginal heritage but Council appears determined to save this important road, Mr Krey said.
He added Yancoal is known to be an underground miner and the current physical state of the Warkworth open cut pit is most suited to an underground operation.
“Rio Tinto has refused to consider this alternative in the past as they were only interested in the bottom line. Open cut mining together with the destruction it causes was Rio looking after its shareholders at the expense of the environment, health and residents,” he said.
A Yancoal spokesman has told The Singleton Argus it is the company’s intention to operate the mines using the existing open cut extraction methods.
He also said that Yancoal won't be in a position to consider Wallaby Scrub Road until such time as the transaction has been completed and the company is able to conduct a thorough review of the operations.