New Hope Group: Hundreds of jobs if Acland Stage 3 approved

NEW Hope Group is calling on the State Government to grant the outstanding approvals for the New Acland Coal Mine Stage 3 expansion to generate jobs.

A worker at the New Acland Coal Mine.

NEW Hope Group is calling on the State Government to grant the outstanding approvals for the New Acland Coal Mine Stage 3 expansion to generate jobs for the Darling Downs over the next 12 to 18 months.

A New Hope Group spokesman said that by approving the expansion of the mine, confidence would be given to the existing workforce, the community, suppliers, and others reliant on the mine.

Figures from New Hope Group project the creation of 487 new jobs at New Acland within 18 months of the final approvals. 

"The ramp up of jobs will commence from the day of approvals and continue through the construction phase," the spokesman said.

"Within the first three months 60 new jobs will be created. This increases to 187 jobs after six months and 258 jobs after 12 months."

The mine has been chasing approvals for the controversial Stage 3 project for 12 years.

In recent years it has been tied up in a series of legal battles with the Oakey Coal Action Alliance. 

OCAA is fighting the mine's expansion to protect what it says is some "of the best agricultural land in Australia" and to have a say over the mine's effect on groundwater, and in its most recent latest legal foray, sought leave to appeal to the High Court in December last year. 

A tentative date to hear the OCAA's application has been set down for sometime between May 18 and 29. 

Regardless of the outcome of the application, New Hope Group has maintained the State Government has all the information it needs to make decision on the project's outstanding approvals.

But the State Government is adamant is won't be making a decision until the outcome of the High Court application.

Originally published as New Hope Group: Hundreds of jobs if Acland Stage 3 approved