Malabar Coal’s Environmental Impact Statement for the Maxwell Underground Project is now on public display and community members and other stakeholders are encouraged to have their say on the proposed development before September 25. 

The Maxwell Project is a proposed underground coal mine located in the Upper Hunter, south of Muswellbrook. It will deliver 350 new jobs and contribute to a stronger and more prosperous local community for decades to come. 

Malabar Chairman, Wayne Seabrook, said the Australian-owned, NSW-based company had designed the project with community and stakeholder feedback front of mind. 

“A top priority for the community is to ensure that the region has a vibrant and diverse economy that supports many different sectors. With that in mind, the Maxwell Project has been carefully designed to ensure that the community can enjoy the significant economic boost this project will create, without negatively impacting other local industries and land uses. “We encourage all community members to take a close look at the EIS and to provide their feedback,” Mr Seabrook said. 

The Maxwell Project will deliver a number of important benefits for the local community and NSW more broadly. 

These benefits include 350 new, direct, long-term local jobs and many more indirect jobs. $55 million in wages will also be injected into the local economy each year along with an additional $1-1.25 billion to the NSW Government and local Council through royalties, taxes and council rates. $500 million to $700 million in annual export income for NSW will be generated by the project.

As part of the planning and community consultation process, Malabar made several important decisions to minimise the mine’s impact. 

Some of those decisions include revisions to the Exploration Licence to ensure that mining on the site can only ever be underground. This will dramatically reduce potential impacts like dust, noise and light on neighbours.

The mine entry for the Maxwell Project has also been carefully placed in a valley 5 km north of the Golden Highway behind a ridge line that cannot be seen from the Highway or the local horse studs. Access to the mine entry will be via Thomas Mitchell Drive, reducing any impact on the local rural and tourist road networks. Malabar has also committed to only mine below freehold land it owns and has voluntarily relinquished the part of the Exploration Licence beneath and south of the Golden Highway.