A COMPANY working to clear nearly 3million tonnes of coal waste from the Cessnock area is seeking state government approval to extend its licence for four years.
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Hunter Enviro Mining Pty Ltd was granted approval in September 2006 to clear coal chitter and tailings from sites at Neath, Aberdare East and Richmond Main East.
The company’s general manager, Brian Banister, said it needed four more years because the original approval expired last month.
The small Richmond Main trial job was long finished but Aberdare East had nearly a year to run before Neath could start.
Mr Bannister said the coal was taken by truck to the former Hebburn No.2 colliery, where saleable coal fines were separated at a washery and the remaining waste pumped into the disused mine shaft.
The coal was sold through an agent as ‘‘trimming coal’’ for blending into larger cargoes. Its price moved on the spot market but it sold for ‘‘much less’’ than the typical Newcastle spot price of about $90a tonne.
‘‘We had 23people working on the project but we’ve had to scale back to just a handful until the Neath project is up and running,’’ Mr Banister explained.
Kurri Kurri’s Col Maybury welcomed the progress on the tailings sites, but had doubts about pumping acidic waste into the old mine.
Kurri Kurri Landcare had spent years treating acid run-off from the Neath site with lime before Hunter Enviro Mining gained access to the chitter pile, he said. He supported the chitter removal but worried that the acidic waste being pumped into Hebburn No.2 was leaching through about 15kilometres of interconnected mine shafts to emerge at Testers Hollow, south of Maitland.
From there ‘‘about a swimming pool a month’’ of acidic red mine water ran via Wallis Creek and into the Hunter River at East Maitland.
Mr Banister said the coal seams were inclined the wrong way for the water to be coming from Hebburn No.2 and he stood by the environmental credentials of his operation.
Mr Maybury said the acid mine water was a problem regardless of where it came from.