Mount Pleasant Coal Mine Granted Six-Year Extension by NSW Government

A major New South Wales coal mine has been given a lifeline by the state government, four months before it was due to close.

Mining approvals for MACH Energy's Mount Pleasant coal mine near Muswellbrook were due to expire in December.

The mine has been given a six-year extension while it fights to overturn a block on its plans for a 22-year expansion project in the High Court.

The approval also allows for an increase in the approved extraction rate from 10.5 to 12.5 million tonnes of coal per annum.

The mine employs more than 500 people.

Upper Hunter MP Dave Layzell said the extension was crucial to secure those jobs as the expiry deadline loomed.

"It's quite damaging to people's psyche when they're constantly bombarded with this news that they could lose their job. People have mortgages, they've got families," he said.

"We hope that once it's dealt with in the High Court, people know that they've got a job for the next couple of decades."

Legal hold-up

MACH Energy applied for the six-year extension in October, after a legal challenge from a local environment group halted plans for a longer extension project.

MACH had previously secured approval to extend the mine's life by 22 years to 2048 as a State Significant Development.

The proposed expansion would allow the company to mine an additional 247 million tonnes of coal by 2048.

But the consent was later ruled invalid after the Denman Aberdeen Muswellbrook Scone Healthy Environment Group (DAMSHEG) challenged the decision in the New South Wales Court of Appeal.

The court found that the state's Independent Planning Commission (IPC) had failed to take into account the project's impact on the environment and climate, specifically the impacts of greenhouse gases from exported coal.

The Court of Appeal ruling rendered the IPC's approval invalid.

DAMSHEG president Wendy Wales said the environmental impacts of the project would be extreme.

"We have to be winding back from coal," she said.

MACH Energy was granted special leave to appeal the ruling in the High Court of Australia last year, but sought the six-year extension to allow operations to continue while it awaits a decision.

Ms Wales said she was "devastated" the six-year extension was approved while the High Court case was still active.

"This approval has pre-empted the High Court decision and provided them a pathway to continue if they lose," she said.

"We need to know what that decision is before we allow mining to continue."

In a statement following the High Court hearing in May, MACH said it was "actively pursuing all available options to ensure the continuity of this important project".

"MACH Energy welcomed today’s opportunity to appear as an appellant to the High Court and will continue to operate in alignment with existing approvals and conditions and seek to provide long-term continuity and certainty for its staff, contractors, customers and the local community," the statement read.