3rd April, 2007

The Hunter Community Environment Centre has revealed today that coal reserves in NSW could run out in less than four decades, adding to urgent calls to cease coal expansion plans in the Hunter Valley.

Based on current industry growth and production rates, HCEC claims that the 10,600 million tonnes of coal under NSW will be exhausted in just 35 years.

HCEC spokesperson Georgina Woods said, “NSW is currently producing 156 million tonnes of coal per year, most of which is coming out of the Hunter Valley, and 70% of which is being sold for export.”

Production increased by just over 6% in the 2004/2005 financial year and plans are underway to continue massively expanding exports. If coal production continues to expand, we will exhaust our known reserves in under four decades.”

This revelation is based on widely available industry data and we are stunned that the Government has ignored it. Surely we need to reflect on whether NSW should allow international coal corporations to dig up and sell this diminishing resource simply for export profit.”

Burning coal for electricity is fuelling global climate change, and export coal is NSW biggest single contribution to that problem. Why are the NSW and Federal Governments not acting in the public interest? Burning this coal is going to accelerate global climate change, and it’s going to run out soon anyway. Why aren’t we radically changing the economic and social foundations of the Hunter region now, before it’s too late?”

Background information

• According the 2006 NSW Coal Industry Profile, we produced 156 million tones of thermal and coking coal last financial year, an increase of 6.3% on the previous year.

• The 35-year prediction is based on assuming continued growth of 3.2% per annum – the average rate of growth in exports over the last decade.
• More than 70% of the coal produced here in the Hunter is sold for export.
• In the past decade, NSW coal exports have increased by 38%.
• Newcastle is the biggest coal port in the world and last year exported more than 80 million tonnes of coal, primarily to Japan, Taiwan and Korea.
• The NSW Government is currently considering proposals for 15 new mines in the Hunter and Gunnedah Basin.
• A third coal export terminal on Kooragang Island that will load and additional 66 million tonnes of coal per year for export expansion of the existing Kooragang coal terminal to increase its capacity by 43 million tonnes.
• All levels of Government and major parties along with coal industry lobby groups have claimed that scaling back NSW coal production will have no effect on climate change as the difference will be easily supplied by other coal producing nations.
• This claim is contradicted by the key NSW Government review of the industry produced in 2006, which cites “supply shortages from key producing nations” as one reason for the current boom.
• Minerals Council Executive Officer, Nikki Williams, told a NSW Minerals seminar in Beijing in November last year that “There is considerable scope to expand our coal export capacity. About 108 million tonnes per annum of thermal coal capacity has been identified in the Hunter, Gunnedah and Western regions up to the year 2020.”
• All of the figures in this release are available in the 2006 NSW Coal Industry Profile produced by the Department of Primary Industries (DPI) and are available in synopsis on the DPI website: http://www.dpi.nsw.gov.au/minerals/resources/coal/coal-industry