With the country’s spring racing calendar now in full swing news from the NSW Planning and Assessment Commission (PAC) should see the Hunter’s thoroughbred industry celebrating perhaps one of its most significant wins.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
PAC has rejected the proposed Drayton South project arguing it will have too greater impact on the region’s leading thoroughbred studs Coolmore and Darley.
The Commission says the mine is not in the public interest.
This is the second time a PAC has rejected the project with an earlier Commission saying in December last year the project in its current form would also have too great an impact.
Owners of the mine Anglo American developed a retracted mine plan following the PAC rejection in 2013.
The Department of Planning supported the retracted plan proposal saying its economic benefits outweighed the negative impacts of the development.
In its report on the project the Department said the two industries open cut mining and horse breeding could co-exist.
But the PAC report on the retracted mine plan totally reject’s the Departments view of the project.
The summary of the finding are:
1) The project does not provide sufficient buffer to protect Coolmore and Darley from the impacts of mining as recommended in the PAC Review Report and the Gateway Panel Report.
2) The project has not demonstrated that it will not adversely impact on equine health and the operations of the Coolmore and Darley horse studs.
3) The approach of monitoring the responses of thoroughbred horses to the mine’s operation to address uncertainty is not acceptable because once the damage to the operations of the studs occurs, it is irreversible.
4) The economic benefits of the project do not outweigh the risk of losing Coolmore and Darley and the potential demise of the equine industry in the area with flow‐on impacts on the viticultural and tourism industries.
5) The project is not in the public interest.
