Portions of Proposed Dharawal National Park Given to BHP Billiton
The state government of New South Wales (NSW) had agreed to extend some portions of its proposed Dharawal National Park to BHP Billiton, in what seems to be a continuing winning streak for Anglo-Australian global miner.
In a statement, NSW Premier Barry O'Farrell and Environment Minister Robyn Parker confirmed a small part of the planned national park reaching to the Georges River will be left for BHP Billiton for longwall mining.
Another strip of land in the national park's center may also be mined under the compromise, but undermining will not be allowed.
''It allows BHP to access other mining leases,'' Parker was quoted by the Sydney Morning Herald. ''It will stay as a state conservation area until it's been mined and then we'll probably draw it into the boundaries of the park.''
O'Farrell said the NSW government 99% of the current Dharawal State Conservation Area will be absorbed into the national park. It excludes two small areas for BHP Billiton's ongoing and proposed mining operations in the Illawarra region. BHP Billiton has revised its Bulli coal project to work around the excluded areas of the proposed park.
''The new national park will not have an adverse impact on Illawarra Coal's existing West Cliff Mine operations,'' Sydney Morning Herald quoted a spokeswoman from BHP Billiton as saying.
"This outcome balances the establishment of the national park while securing jobs and investment," O'Farrell said.