The New South Wales Independent Planning Commission in Australia conditionally approved the A$381 million United Wambo coal project, a joint venture between Glencore PLC and Peabody Energy Corp.
The joint venture company, United Collieries Pty. Ltd., sought approval to expand open cut mining operations at the existing United Wambo mine and the United colliery to extract an additional 150 million tonnes of run-of-mine coal over 23 years.
In its approval, the commission noted that coal extracted from the project can only be exported to countries that are part of the Paris Agreement on climate change or have policies for reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
The commission said Aug. 29 that the approval conditions are designed to cut down on adverse social and environmental impacts, set standards for environmental performance, provide for the ongoing environmental management of the development.
