New Acland mine runs out of coal as court case begins

The New Acland mine on Queensland’s Darling Downs will run out of coal within a month and cut staff from the current 90 to less than 20.

Pit operator Stewart Mills in front of the line of trucks in storage at the New Acland coal mine, outside Oakey, west of Toowoomba. Picture: Lyndon Mechielsen

The New Acland mine on Queensland’s Darling Downs will run out of coal within a month and cut staff from 90 now to less than 20.

A hearing has been set for later this month in the Land Court, where an application to expand the open-cut pit will be debated for a third time over opposition from farmers and environmentalists.

Miner New Hope says the last of the coal reserves will be exhausted by late October and the mine put into care and maintenance mode by the end of November. The mine has shed more than 200 jobs in the past two years, with the latest round of redundancies in July.

The Palaszczuk government has refused to approve the mine expansion, first raised more than a decade ago, until all legal challenges are finalised.

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk and Resources Minister Scott Stewart have rejected pleas from New Hope and the Queensland Resources Council to intervene in the process after the High Court in February referred the application to extend the life of the mine to the Land Court.