The New South Wales Court of Appeal has rebuffed South Korean mining company KEPCO’s bid to get its coalmine project going in the fertile Bylong Valley. Jim McIlroy reports.
KEPCO
The Bylong Valley Protection Alliance has formally been accepted as part of the court case battling to save a valley near Mudgee, New South Wales, from being destroyed by a huge open-cut coal mine, reports Jim McIlroy.
The ruling by the NSW Land and Environment Court on February 8 to reject the Rocky Hill coalmine outside Gloucester is being felt beyond its local community and will have implications for human rights as well as climate change policy.
The Resources Regulator Lee Shearer revealed in a Budget Estimates hearing on September 1 that it is investigating whether Korean mining company KEPCO is fit and proper to hold a mining licence in New South Wales, after serious international fraud and corruption allegations against the company were made.
KEPCO is proposing to develop two open-cut coalmines in the beautiful Bylong Valley, about 55 km north-east of Mudgee in north-western NSW. The mine is expected to produce up to 6.5 million tonnes of coal a year for 25 years, commencing early next year.
Activists have called on the NSW government to cancel the exploration licence for the proposed KEPCO coalmine in the Bylong Valley after the Planning Assessment Commission (PAC) slammed the project for putting at risk prime agricultural land, precious water resources, heritage values and the community.
About 400 people attended a public open-day at the iconic Tarwyn Park property in the beautiful Bylong Valley in the Upper Hunter on July 31. It was the day that Peter Andrews, the 76- year-old founder and expert in Natural Sequence Farming (NSF), relinquished ownership of the property.
Korean state-owned mining company KEPCO assumed ownership of the property at midnight on August 1. But Andrews has vowed to stay on to fight for the land's protection.