Mount Pleasant Optimisation Project

Mount Pleasant Operation provides a positive contribution to the local communities, engages with locals and community groups and provides sustainable mining practices; seeking to better the coal industry.

I fully support the Mount Pleasant Optimisation Project. The project provides me with stable long term employment, and supports many local businesses in the area whilst also contributing to endless community groups & charities that I am involved in within the Hunter.

As a person who has a long history of selling energy products out of Australia, including coal, I have a good understanding on the demand for Australian coal in the world. Hunter Valley coal is the cleanest coal in the world and desired by Asian customers to fuel their energy needs.
The coal from Mt Pleasant will not only provide the cleanest fuel possible for these markets, but will also generate significant revenue for the state and employment opportunities for the region. I am fully supportive of this project and expansion.

This project is for the good of the community, region and state of NSW.
This project will provide jobs to locals in the mining sector as well as local businesses.
MACH energy and Thiess have a proven track record of being benchmark miners in environmental and community performance.
My family has been in the local area for 8 generations so I am a local and I love the Hunter region. If this project does not get approval there is a good chance that I will need to leave the district with my family.

Thank you for the opportunity to comment on this proposed project.

I object to this project as it threatens to worsen the air pollution from coal mining that’s already affecting people’s health.

Should the mine further expand, it will further empty the rural community at Kayuga, increase air pollution for Aberdeen and Muswellbrook and produce mountainous, ugly spoil piles visible from idyllic Scone.

Muswellbrook alreadyvhas air pollution that breaches national standards, an intensification of open cut mining on the edge of town is surely going to make the situation worse?

This project is far too risky and should not be approved. It's time for clean air and people's lives to come first.

Mount Pleasant mine owner Mach Energy is wanting to expand the mine with approval to operate beyond 2040. Given the impact on climate change of burning fossil fuels and Australia's commitments to the 2015 Paris Climate Accord we CAN NOT have new coal mines/mine expansions being approved in 2021 if we are to meet our obligations.
The existing mine already looms visibly over Muswellbrook and any expansion will further empty the rural community at Kayuga, increase air pollution for Aberdeen and Muswellbrook and produce ugly spoil piles visible from as far far afield as Scone.
With Muswellbrook already suffering from air pollution that breaches national standards, an intensification of open cut mining on the edge of town will make the situation worse.
The local rural community is opposed to this expansion and I hereby wish to add my voice to submissions made to the planning department highlighting that this project is far too risky and should not be approved. It's time for clean air and people's lives to come first and not an industry which has a rapidly reducing economic viability and will, in the not distant future be replaced by sustainable alternatives which are already available and, unlike coal, supported by major financial institutions.

There is no justifiable reason to continue and/or expand this coal mine. Not only does this proposal fly in the face of increasingly obvious social and environmental risks for Australians and the wider world. The impacts on Musswellbrook and Scone and the smaller towns in the region will be significant and adverse. This, at a time when increasing numbers of citizens are leaving the cities for the regions as a result of the COVID pandemic and the opportunities available to work remotely increase. It is my hope that this process will not just be another rubber stamp of approval in this time of fossil fuel decline and that the the company will take this opportunity to both phase out further mining operations and diversify into a renewable future.

Muswellbrook already suffers from air pollution that breaches national standards and an intensification of open cut mining on the edge of town is bound to make the situation worse.

The accumulative impacts of open cut coal mining in the Hunter Valley are well documented and to approve further expansion of mining would be an intentional act of environmental and social abuse on all people who spend time there.

This project is far too risky and should not be approved. It's time for clean air and people's lives to come first.

I object to this project on many grounds. It will increase the already unacceptable levels of air pollution in the upper Hunter. the local community and especially children are paying the true coast of coal extraction, destruction of health and well being.
I also object to further extension of existing mines on the basis this will worsen climate change and lead to many adverse effects on health of humans, plants and animala

An expansion of this coal mine will further harm the local environment, and is not good for the global environment. I know we still need coal for a while, but expansion should come rarely if ever, and only on a truly needs basis.

The Muswellbrook people are already shouldering a huge burden with unchecked mining. It's not fair that these people should have to live with yet more coal dust and the resultant health issues.

Please do not continue to push this project.

I was born in the Hunter Valley and have seen the absolute destruction caused by coal mining. I cannot believe that I am writing to say that coal is not for the future if we are going to live on this planet. Can you not understand that mining the Mount Pleasant mine needs to stop now. Alternative energy sources, viable future work for the people of the valley all should be considered. but coal is a dead end . there cannot be a EIS that suggests otherwise, surely.
lets bring back the glory of the beautiful Hunter Valley and let us all live more peacefully. Mining coal is a sore on our very souls.

yours sincerely

Moira Bishop

Mount Pleasant is a new mine but it’s already planning a big expansion, with the owner Mach Energy wanting to expand the mine and get approval to operate beyond 2040.
The mine already looms visibly over Muswellbrook. If it expands, it will further empty the rural community at Kayuga, increase air pollution for Aberdeen and Muswellbrook and produce mountainous, ugly spoil piles visible from idyllic Scone. With Muswellbrook already copping air pollution that breaches national standards, an intensification of open cut mining on the edge of town is bound to make the situation worse. Additionally Australia doesn't need coal anymore for anything. Not for power generation, not for steel making or anything else. Hydrogen can be used for steel making and renewables are cheaper and better for the environment than coal. It makes no financial sense as well as no environmental sense to be opening up new coal mines. Coal is ancient history as far as technology is concerned and is way past its use by date. We are signatories to the Paris Climate Agreement and decisions in favor of such caol miones fly in the face of any efforts to reduce our emissions. Please do not allow this mine to proceed.

The expansion of any coal mine in our current planetary climate crisis is a crime against future generations. At this time we are headed for a 3 degree increase in average global temperatures. There is now irrefutable evidence that coal is a major source of this increase and Australia of all nations has the greatest potential to source all its power from other sources in just a few short years. The idea that such a mine be expanded and given the green light to continue even for one year let alone till 2040 is reprehensible.
Furthermore, to allow any expansion of an open cut coal mine near towns and villages that are already exposed to unacceptably high levels of mining-originated air pollution is also totally unacceptable and unethical.
The NSW Government has recently made world class decisions to pursue renewable energy production on a large scale. How is it possible that the same government could even consider then giving the green light to such an outdated, destructive project.
That would be a gobsmackingly retrograde step from health, scientific, economic, social and environmental perspectives.
As a scientist with a deep understanding of the natural systems on which we are totally dependent and also of the limits of even our most sophisticated technological solutions in the face of complex planetary crises like climate disaster, I strongly advise you not to permit the expansion of any more coal mines and especially not any more open cut mines near populated areas.

Australia and the world can not cope with any more coal being dug up and burnt. All open cut coal mines should be closed down and rehabilitated before they go bankrupt.
It is about time that the NSW Dept. of Planning and Environment started to take responsibility for the Environment and the damage inflicted by allowing open cut mining to the land, water, air, animals and humans. And start Planning for how to bring back the clean air; free of coal dust, smoke and pollution, clean unpolluted waterways and getting the bush and native animals back to pre coal mining conditions.

The Hunter region is over-mined already.
Ignoring climate change in favor of increased coal consumption is immoral and stupid.
Energy production focus should be on renewables.
As a voting, tax-paying citizen, I strongly object to further expansion of coal mining in this otherwise attractive and agriculturally productive region.
Thank you.

Major Projects
The Department of Industry and Environment

Dear Sir/Madam
Mining has a proven history of innovation and achievement, and Mount Pleasant Operation is no exception as it strives to be at the forefront of environmental management in mining. From the natural-look landform already in place west of Muswellbrook to the day-to-day management of key aspects of the operation (noise and air quality), the final landform and aesthetics of the operation are only going to improve as the project moves north and west. With over 12,000 eyes watching each day, I know the individuals who complain each year are in single figures. Mining and other major industries in the Upper Hunter like horse studs and wineries can co-exist, and it's only peoples perceptions that need to change for these industries to grow and develop together.
Thank you.

We need to halt any expansions of coal mining in NSW in particular and in Australia overall. The move to renewable energy, with a focus on helping workers in the mining industry make the transition to other employment opportunities, including renewable energy and manufacturing based on renewable energy as the electricity source is imperative.
Mount Pleasant may be a new mine but it’s already planning a big expansion, with the owner Mach Energy wanting to expand the mine and get approval to operate beyond 2040. We as a country do not have a serious commitment to reducing greenhouse emissions by 2030, that alone by 2050, yet most of the major economies are well on the way to effective target reductions.
The mine already looms largely over Muswellbrook. If it expands, it will further empty the rural community at Kayuga, increase air pollution for Aberdeen and Muswellbrook and produce mountainous, ugly spoil piles visible from idyllic Scone.
With Muswellbrook already copping air pollution that breaches national standards, an intensification of open cut mining on the edge of town is bound to make the situation worse.
It's time for clean air and people's lives to come first and for climate change to be taken seriously by the NSW and Australian government. We need investment to diversify our regional economy.

These people who live in the region have been subjected to enough dust from coal mining . This will only add more health issues to people who live and work in this region.

As a biologist, I am concerned about the effects of the project on the air quality of the area as well as other potentially negative environmental effects of this project. The area already has coal mines that are adversely affecting air and water quality and damaging local ecosystems. What this area needs is a commitment to new technology and new industries that are less polluting and can provide better job opportunities locally. We do not need more polluting coal mines.