Hume Coal has moving to quickly sell what is the largest landholding in the South Highlands region after its plans for a $533 million coal mine were knocked back by the Independent Planning Commission (IPC).
The Australian subsidiary of Korean steel giant POSCO is hoping for over $60 million for the 1,308-hectare landholding, seven kilometres from the town of Moss Vale.
The snap expressions of interest campaign through Kim Watts of Ray White Parkes will last just 10 days. On offer is a collection of nine properties running from Sutton Forest, Berrima, Moss Vale, Medway, the historic Mereworth House, and Hume Coal’s offices in the Berrima town, available in one line.
The nine-bedroom, French provincial style Mereworth House dates back to 1820. It was owned by the Oxley family – the famous Bushells Tea label – from 1963 until 2014, when Hume Coal acquired the site for $11.1 million.
This is also 1,970 megalitres of water licences available that can be purchased whole or in parcels.
After years of POSCO exploring the project, the state’s IPC deemed the impacts of the underground mine and associated Berrima rail loop too significant to be reasonably managed. Coking coal would have been transported to Port Kembla for export.
Plans did not “achieve an appropriate balance between relevant environmental, economic and social considerations”.
“The impacts of the project cannot be reasonably and satisfactorily avoided, mitigated and managed through conditions”.
Among the concerns were the mine’s greenhouse gas emissions, risks to surface water – including to Sydney drinking water, and impacts on local indigenous and historic heritage, while Local jobs and benefits for the area’s businesses were considered to be potential winners.
“Based on the potential for long-term and irreversible impacts, and the impacts of the project on the social and environmental values of the region, the project is not in the public interest,” the IPC’s three commissioners concluded.
Expressions of interest close on Thursday, 30th September.
The offering follows Shenhua Watermark Coal moving to sell off its Liverpool Plains landholdings with expectations of $120 million after the NSW government paid the company to give up its mining license.
They comprise three aggregations, Breeza, Tambar Springs and Barraba, covering a combined 16,570 hectares in the north west’s Gunnedah region.
Shenhua collected most of the 20 properties that make up the holding in 2009 and 2010 with plans to develop an open-cut mine. They are currently leased to seven tenants who both occupy and manage various titles under independent lease agreements.
