PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Coal miner New Hope has reportedly crossed another hurdle with the development approval of its New Acland Stage 3 project expansion, after the Queensland Department of Environment and Heritage Protection released a draft environmental authority.

The Queensland Resources Council (QRC) said on Monday that the release of the draft environmental authority was an important milestone towards securing 435 full-time jobs for locals at the New Acland mine, near Oakey on the Darling Downs.

The draft environmental authority sets down 68 pages of 137 strict conditions around matters such as water, air quality and noise and nearly an additional 1 000 commitments to uphold.

QRC CEO Michael Roche noted that the draft environmental authority and mining lease would now go to the Queensland Land Court, from which an outcome is required by mid-2016 to guarantee continuity of employment for those people currently working at the mine.

The A$900-million New Acland Stage 3 project would expand the Acland mine’s yearly output from 4.8-million tonnes to 7.5-million tonnes and would extend the mine life beyond the current end-date of 2017/18.

The Queensland government had initially not supported New Acland’s original 2007 expansion plan, owing to its effect on high-quality agricultural land and proximity to local townships.

However, since 2012, New Hope had reduced the project’s footprint by about 60% and had confirmed it would abandon 1 401 ha of the mining lease area, including the town of Acland. The company had also removed the proposed relocation of a heritage-listed item, reducing the impact on strategic cropping land.

Further, New Hope had reduced throughput from the proposed mine from up to ten-million tonnes a year, to a maximum of 7.5-million tonnes a year, reducing the proposed mine life from 2042 to 2029.