Mangoola Coal Continued Operations Project

Local landowners have been unable to sell their properties due to the closeness of Mangoola mine and its planned extension. This has a negative impact on those wishing to sell due to ill health and retirement eg a widower whose husband passed away from asbestosis and an adult son needing a full time carer, almost had her property sold until the prospective buyer heard of the news that Mangoola mine was proposing to extend and withdrew immediately from the sale.
Dwindling local community - once a thriving community the number of local families residing in the area has decreased.
Destruction of wildlife and the mine's impact on their environment, as well as the closeness of Mangoola Mine as it approaches the National Reserve between Post Office Road and Ridgelands Road.
Air and Noise Quality - We are concerned about the unacceptable levels of noise and dust near our property and in the once peaceful valley that our property resides in, the enjoyment of this quiet area is being diminished.

I do not support Mangoola Coal Continued Operations Project
I live with my family within 4 km of Mangoola mine since the start of mining we have experienced increasing dust levels and noise.
The work proposed to extend the mine will only make dust and noise worse. Mining to the north of the existing mine will be done out on the valley floor and will be more exposed to wind and less protected by the adjacent hills.
The proposed overpass of Wybong Rd will have large fully loaded haul trucks raised well above the valley floor carrying overburden and coal with no noise mitigation evident on the plans, they will also be exposed to the wind blowing dust onto Wybong Rd and surrounds.
The plan to leave a final void is very worrying, to leave what will be a toxic legacy to future generations a damning indictment of mining company greed.
The pollution from large mining equipment has to be accounted in the overall air quality that has been degraded since the start of mining in the area. With large excavators using 8000lt of diesel, mine trucks using 3000lt, dozers 800lt per day plus other ancillary machines it quickly adds up, but unlike modern road going diesel vehicles mining equipment don’t have pollution mitigating devices. This is like having a small city if old trucks next door.

The continued operations will continue supporting local business and suppliers. Also providing employment and apprenticeship opportunities

this mine is a great asset to the local community providing many jobs and support

Mangoola is a Great Project and supports good causes and the comunity

Letter of support attached

My eldest son recently did work experience wit this amazing company and wishes to further his studies at University with the view and the hope of returning to work at Mangoola - a company that supports his ecological vision and values diversity. Mangoola is a valued employer of local residents and has an outstanding rehab reputation within the local community. I whole heartedly support the expansion for both employment, inclusion and ecological reason.

This project will create both construction, supply and mining jobs both in the Muswellbrook and surrounding areas. The project will have a net benefit of $408.6 million for NSW over the its life. From the sustainable management practices which control the environmental impacts the operation will have minimal short term effects.

I am in support of the Mangoola Continued Operations Project it is important to our Hunter Valley community to allow the continuation of hundreds of employees as well as the contributions the mine site makes directly to the surrounding areas.

I am in support of this project. Mangoola has promoted hundreds of jobs in the Upper Hunter region and will continue to do so and help the economy in the Upper Hunter for many years to come with this submission.

I support this project due to the value it adds to the Muswellbrook and greater Hunter valley communities through direct employment, flow on employment to supporting industry, involvement and contributions to local community organisations. Mangoola Coal has proven themselves to be a responsible miner and has leading practice in rehabilitation of the land for the future.

I would like to provide this positive submission for the Mangoola North Extension project as it has provided a number positive things for myself, my family and the community.
I myself have been in the industry for 20+ years and it has supported my family throughout this time. I have now resided in the Muswellbrook area from Maitland with my family where our money is spent in the local economy. My wife owns a labor company in Muswellbrook with a number of her employees working for Mangoola. Should this project not be successful, within 5 years I myself and my wife plus a number of other employees will be out of a job and the potential for my wife's business to fold will force us to move out of the area.
Mangoola has also provided employment for my son who resides in Singleton where a lot of his money goes into the local economy.
Mangoola Coal has been one of the most supporting coal companies I have worked for by way of looking after its workers, neighbors, environment and the local communities.
For the past 9 1/2 years I have been involved with the employment of apprentices which have predominantly been from the local area and providing a mechanical or electrical apprenticeship with training that is second to none. Mangoola has funded apprentice projects where myself and the site apprentices get together each year and assist the less fortunate groups in the area, as an example, we have rejuvenated the yards of the Sandy Hollow community hall, repaired and improved the child play facilities at the Wybong community hall and rejuvenated the front yard of the Muswellbrook Aboriginal cultural center.
My role at Mangoola is the Maintenance superintendent and one of my roles has been the employment of the entire maintenance staff. My primary focus has been to employ local with 95% coming from the Muswellbrook and surrounding communities.
I have also been supported by Mangoola in the local Billy kart derby which supports Hunter Life Education and the Sponsorship of my Beyond Bitumen for Beyond Blue rally car.
The mine itself is the most dedicated company I have worked for, with a heavy focus on compliance to environmental policies and following a tour of our up to date rehab, I am confident it would be the most advanced mine rehab areas in Australia and possibly the world.
Should Mangoola North not be successful in is application I feel the effects for the local communities and its families will be devastating, support of local projects and charities will be significantly reduced, families will leave the area and take their money with them and the district will not be able to support so many out of work ex employees. Businesses will close and the local economy will decline.
The local communities around Mangoola need Mangoola it is a state of the art facility performing to Industry best practice.
Please give it the tick!

Mangoola is a world class mining operation and are leading the way with rehabilitation of previous mining areas.
With this extension of the current mining lease this will help with ongoing employment in the area with majority of local people employed.
A visit to our rehabilitation it will be obvious that we take great pride in how we return the mining lease area back to it original or better.

Glencore and the Mangoola operation especially are a responsible coal mining group, demonstrated by the current way they operate and fantastic established rehab. I personally have been involved with several coal operations through out the Hunter Valley and Mangoola by far have been the most professional in regards to how they treat the surrounding neighbors, local contractors and direct employees.

It will keep my Mum and Dad in a job!

I believe the Australian economy depends greatly on this industry. The coal mining industry is an important resource that we have to continue to support if we want this country to continue to thrive.

I would like to express my objection to the proposed Mangoola Coal extension.
I would like to start off by saying that I am by no means anti mining. I understand the industry is necessary, I also recognise the economic and employment benefits the industry produces for our local community.

I am very concerned however that Mangoola’s “community enhancement program” is just a so called ‘tick of the box’ and provides no certainty for the local land owners that when the time comes they will be able to sell the homes for what they are worth. We are not talking huge, frankly very unrealistic sums of money. We are talking about people being able to sell their homes for what they are valued, as if there wasn’t a fully operational open cut coal mine within kilometres of their homes. Because this is a consistent issue being raised by local residents I am surprised that it can be overlooked is such a way, the “community enhancement program” I feel is completely disrespectful and in no way going to help counteract this issue.

This particular matter of Mangoola’s proposed extension is very important to me, as I have grown up on a hobby farm that is very close to the ‘continuous coal project’. I have watched my family work hard to create a beautiful home, spent countless hours maintaining the property whilst building lifelong friendships with neighbours. I would hate to see all of this overshadowed, by financial uncertainty surrounding the ability to get compensation for their declined property value due to Mangoolas open cut coal mine operations, continuing on their doorstep.

I feel that the continued employment opportunities to those residing in the Muswellbrook Shire is so important and would only increase interest in the area, growing Muswellbrook for future generations.

Mangoola has big commitment to the local economy and provides jobs.
The majority of employees are from the local area.
Mangoola also has a world class rehabilitation program.
The extension will give a boost the local economy and aid in community projects.

We wish to OBJECT to the above application for the following reasons;

We are very worried about Property valuations. It is hard enough to sell rural property now let alone when a coal mine is within 4 kms of you. Further I feel property prices have already been impacted by the existing Mangoola operation therefore existing property prices would have already been reduced before any future valuations are even taken into account.

Further, Lending rules on rural properties have changed over the past 2 years since we purchased our property meaning lenders will not lend on Rural properties over 100 acres. Therefore, if we were to move we would have to significantly down size which will effect our business operations/Incomes.

Our immediate family (Mother & Father & Sister) live on the same road but own separate properties allowing us to help each other manage and look after or respective properties, look after children & elderly parents and just spend quality time together. If we are displaced by Mangoola Coal we are very unlikely to find 3 properties so close together.

Further our Jobs/Careers are in Muswellbrook, our children are settled into School in Muswellbrook however if we are forced to sell if is unlikely to find a similar type property in the local area.

I feel we are going to be forced to stay in a dusty, noisy property that is worth nothing to sell because no one would want to live there!

We are also very concerned about further dust & noise impacts. We are currently affected by Coal dust on our roof in our tanks and polluting our homes. Obviously, the mine coming closer will increase the impact.

We do not qualify for any mitigation even though we are impacted.

We do ring the noise hotline but feel our concerns are dismissed. In desperation we have even rang the EPA to try and get a response.

Obviously opening more ground will increase the dust and what happens when Mangoola are finished mining and we will be left with open TWO Voids!!!

What effect will the additional 52 Million tons of Coal contribute to Climate Change?

Finally, what will be the effect on our community? Growing up in Wybong we use to have a school bus full of local children, Dances at the Hall, Christmas parties which always packed the hall however ever since Mangoola Coal came to the area the Community has been decimated.
I know that Mangoola have proposed a “Community Enhancement program” however you actually need a community to benefit from these programs therefore I believe the program will not solve the problem because no one lives in Wybong anymore!

Once again I strongly object to the propose extension.