Mine will go ahead

New Hope Corporation’s chief financial officer, Shane Stephan, inspected the mine site this week.

Nat Bromhead

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MINING giant New Hope Corporation is steaming ahead with the Colton Mine Project and is now confidently predicting the first hard coking coal from the mine will be loaded onto railway wagons before the end of 2013.

New Hope have just concluded a $200 million buy-out of the previous owners of the Colton mine lease, Northern Energy, and are now focusing all their attention on making the Maryborough project happen.

The new owners have just submitted their remodelled environment management plan and they say it more than addresses the concerns highlighted by DERM when they knocked back the original plan.

New Hope's chief financial officer, Shane Stephan, said the major change to the EMP centred on water, including run-off and most importantly water quality.

"We will be spending a significant amount of money on water management," Mr Stephan said.
The Colton Mine project has already chalked up more than $12m in bills and all lights are green as far as New Hope goes.

"We are hopeful DERM approves our EMR and gives us approval by the first half of next year," Mr Stephan said.

"Then it will be a case of finalising the mining lease in the second half of 2012."

That spells good news for the 2282 people who have submitted their resumes for a job at the site.

Included in that group are more than 900 residents who live within 30km of the Colton Mine site.

On current prices, the hard coking coal that will be produced at the mine will fetch $125 million annually at a production cost of more than $50 million.

The Aldershot anti-Colton Mine group, Aadam, is maintaining its rage and this Sunday will hold a public forum at Queens Park, Maryborough, to highlight issues surrounding the project and explain people's rights.

They claim the mine is within two kilometres of their township, but this has been refuted by New Hope who say Aldershot sits three kilometres away.
 
Aadam say they are ready to fight all the way to stop the mine and are ready to take the fight as far as the Land Court if they have to.

Group spokesman Brian Linforth said a court battle would hold up the project for at least six months.

"There are around 800 people living in Aldershot and this mine could affect their health particularly for the four months of the year when the wind blows predominantly from the north, bringing with it noise and dust," he said.