Belmont dossier
BELMONT COAL MINE PROPOSAL
Image: The Boggabri coal mine, recently carved into valuable habitat not far from the proposed Belmont mine.
Proponent: Location: In the Gunnedah Basin of Northern NSW, which the industry refers to as the “new coal frontier”. The Belmont proposal is 25 km north of Gunnedah.
Proposal: Whitehaven Coal are proposing to dig up 1.5 million tonnes of coal per year, from a 114 hectare open-cut coal mine adjacent too (and partly in? It's hard to tell at this stage) Vickery State Forest. The coal from the mine (which would be tiny by Hunter Valley standards) would produce about 3 million tonnes of equivalent carbon dioxide every year (comparison: the NSW metal production industry produced a bit over 7 million tonnes in 2004).
Process as at end November 2006: Whitehaven are awaiting their Environmental Assessment Requirements from the Director General of the NSW Planning Department. Keep up to date on the NSW Planning Department website: www.planning.nsw.gov.au/asp/register2006.asp#north
Check out this map of the Whitehaven empire
Local contacts:
We are not aware of any local groups working against this proposal, let us know if you are.
