Dendrobium

Protect Our Water Alliance

South32 plans to sell Dendrobium and Appin Mines – expansions back on the cards? POWA says “no chance”

POWA had a chat to Connor Pearce from The Illawarra Mercury – here’s the link to the article

‘Not if we can help it,’ Illawarra activists tell new mine boss

By Connor Pearce

Updated March 6 2024 – 7:03am, first published March 4 2024 – 2:56pm

After the buyer of South32’s Illawarra coal mines left it on the table whether to restart the halted Dendrobium extension, Illawarra environmental activists have thrown down the gauntlet.

“Not if we can help it,” Dr Rada Germanos, spokesperson for the Protect our Water Alliance (POWA) said, when asked about M Resources’s Matt Latimore’s “long term” plans to continue mining under the water catchment.

POWA have been fierce campaigners against the expansion of the underground coal mines which snake beneath the dams that store the drinking water for Sydney and the Illawarra.

When South32 ruled out proceeding with the Dendrobium Next Domain extension project, Dr Germanos was one of those who hailed the decision as a win for the environment and a testament to the years of campaigning, even if it was economics that ultimately decided the fate of the project.

But it may be economics that gets the expansion back on the table, after Mr Latimore and his partners, the Singapore-based Golden Energy and Resources, lay out $2.5 billion for South32’s Illawarra coal assets.

“What I can say now is that when we buy assets, we’re looking at assets for the long term, we’re looking at assets we can continue to grow,” Mr Latimore said on Friday.

The avid Ferrari fan may be in for a fight, with Dr Germanos hinting that community opposition may be even fiercer than the protests against the project’s approvals from 2019.

“I expect there’s going to be huge opposition to any expansion,” she said.

“These companies have shareholders and investors that they have to impress to get finance, so of course if they’re going to buy a mine, they’re going to say ‘We’re going to keep it going forever and that it’s going to be a fantastic asset.’

“Perhaps they don’t understand the local region, the community sentiment, the growing distrust of miners.”

But as one mine is swooped up as a viable economic asset, another closes, with Russell Vale having shut in early February.

At that mine, which only restarted after the miner proposed using the bord and pillar approach, rather than longwall mining to reduce damage to the environment above, Wollongong Resources shut after the company was laden with huge debts and a questionable safety record.

Dr Germanos said Mr Latimore may look up the road for what’s to come.

“I don’t think the coal companies have demonstrated to us a safe, non destructive way to mine under the water catchment.”

Protect Our Water Alliance

Media Release: New South32 report details permanent damage to swamps and creeks by Dendrobium Mine

MEDIA RELEASE 

4th April, 2023

New South32 report details permanent damage to swamps and creeks by Dendrobium Mine

Wollongong, New South Wales — Further detail on the ongoing extensive damage caused by South32’s Dendrobium Mine has come to light, showing sustained damage to creeks, swamps and waterfalls close to the edge of Lake Avon. The mining multinational published its Longwall 18 End of Panel Report (1) at the end of 2022, documenting the fresh damage caused by its longwall mining operations within the Special Areas of the Greater Sydney Water Catchment. 

Detailed in this report are impacts on streams, creeks, upland swamps, and waterfalls in the Longwall 18 footprint, which measures 1000m x 300m, or the size of 220 rugby league fields. The report documents 24 new identified surface impacts, all of which were observed on “natural features”.

South32 recently withdrew its application for a 20 year extension to the Dendrobium Mine, but will continue to conduct longwall mining within the water catchment for several more years.

Protect Our Water Alliance (POWA) spokesperson Dr Rada Germanos said “This report provides us with the most up-to-date evidence of the incredible damage that South32’s longwall mining is causing in our water catchment areas. South32 ripped out this longwall in five months, but they have left behind permanent damage to the landscape and ecology of the area.”

“This report details significant and sustained damage to all of the upland swamps in the survey area, with the worst impacts on Swamp 1B. There is also clear documentation of damage to Donalds Castle Creek and Wongawilli Creek, with reduction in water pooling and reduction in terrestrial and aquatic habitat. The most galling part is that all of this damage is just another chapter in the long archive of environmental destruction that has been pre-approved by the NSW Department of Planning”

“These swamps and creeks are vital to the health of the ecosystems of the Illawarra. And we know that these swamps and creeks, once cracked and damaged, don’t recover. This report gives us real-time evidence from South32 themselves of the damage that longwall mining is causing each and every day. This is why we are calling for a stop to mining in the water catchment now, not just an end to new expansions or mines – because our environment is getting smashed right here and right now under the current approvals.”

The recent NSW Election saw the issue of mining in the water catchment raised at many community candidates forums. The newly-elected Labor MP for Heathcote, Maryanne Stuart, has publicly stated her opposition to mining expansions in the water catchment regions. However, the newly-elected Minns Government still supports coal mining within these sensitive areas. 

“The recent election result is a welcome rejection of the former Perrotet government, one which tried to ram through the now-ditched Dendrobium Mine Expansion under SSI status, with the backing of One Nation’s Mark Latham. Will our re-elected Labor MPs Ryan Park and Paul Scully stand up for the special, sensitive places of our region, or will they continue to support the broken planning processes that rubber-stamp the destruction of our local environment and water catchment?”

References

  1. https://www.south32.net/docs/default-source/operations/illawarra/illawarra-metallurgical-coal-mine/documents/dendrobium/end-of-panel-report/longwall-18/longwall-18-end-of-panel-report.pdf?sfvrsn=be9cb8aa_2

An example of photos from the Report, detailing damage to waterways in the Longwall 18 footprint (p 30):

Protect Our Water Alliance

Media Release: New report details damning environmental destruction by Dendrobium Mine

Wollongong, New South Wales — Confronting images of recent environmental destruction by South32’s Dendrobium Mine have come to light, showing cracked streams and rockfalls within the Special Areas of the Greater Sydney Water Catchment. The mining multinational published its Longwall 17 End of Panel Report (1) earlier this year, documenting the immediate environmental impacts of this particular area of mining in Area 3b. 

Detailed in this report are impacts on streams, creeks, upland swamps, access roads, water losses, as well as documented Aboriginal heritage sites. The report documents 40 identified new surface impacts, 75% of which were on “natural features”.

South32 recently withdrew its application for a 20 year extension to the Dendrobium Mine, but will continue to conduct longwall mining within the water catchment for several more years.

Protect Our Water Alliance (POWA) spokesperson Dr Rada Germanos said “This report provides us with real-time evidence of the horrific damage that South32 is causing within our water catchment. It is incredible to read such a long document that lists cracked stream after cracked stream, dry swamp after dry swamp, and realise that all of this destruction has been approved by the Department of Planning.”

“Furthermore, only two of the five documented Aboriginal heritage sites were visited in the post-mining survey. First Nations people have said time and time again that longwall mining affects the cultural integrity of the landscape, and here we see an incredibly poor effort by South32 to even bother to acknowledge their destruction of these places.”

“While water drinkers in Sydney and the Illawarra are relieved that the expansion of the Dendrobium Mine will not go ahead, we remain deeply concerned that damage to our water catchment continues every day until the mining ceases.“

“This consent to destroy has been provided by successive NSW Governments. It is simply not good enough to allow multinational companies to trash these ecosystems, and document their destruction in these dry, detached reports. As the 2023 State Election draws closer, we ask, do the Labor or Liberal parties care enough about clean drinking water for the 5 million people of Greater Sydney to overhaul our planning laws, and stop this destruction by stopping mining in our water catchment?”

Protect Our Water Alliance

Dendrobium Damage Update #4 – more cracked rocks

South32 has finished mining Longwall 17 in “Area 3b” in the Dendrobium Mine, which of course is on unceded Dharawal Country, and just north of the Avon Reservoir.
Your faithful friends here at POWA have trawled through the End of Panel report, and distilled some Dendrobium Damage for you. Spoiler alert: longwall mining is highly destructive, and South32’s contractors only appear to have surveyed a small part of the undermined (and adjacent) area.

All images are taken from the Longwall 17 End of Panel Report


If you’re super keen and want to read the report yourself, you can find it here.

Protect Our Water Alliance

Dendrobium Damage #3 – this is what a cracked stream looks like

South32 has finished mining Longwall 17 in “Area 3b” in the Dendrobium Mine, which of course is on unceded Dharawal Country, and just north of the Avon Reservoir.
Your faithful friends here at POWA have trawled through the End of Panel report, and distilled some Dendrobium Damage for you. Spoiler alert: longwall mining is highly destructive, and South32’s contractors only appear to have surveyed a small part of the undermined (and adjacent) area.

Images taken straight from the Longwall 17 End of Panel Report

Stay tuned for update #4!

If you’re super keen and want to read the report yourself, you can find it here.

Protect Our Water Alliance

Dendrobium Damage Update #2

South32 has finished mining Longwall 17 in “Area 3b” in the Dendrobium Mine, which of course is on unceded Dharawal Country, and just north of the Avon Reservoir.

Your faithful friends here at POWA have trawled through the End of Panel report, and distilled some Dendrobium Damage for you. Spoiler alert: longwall mining is highly destructive, and South32’s contractors only appear to have surveyed a small part of the undermined (and adjacent) area.

Update #2

The average daily inflow to Area 3b during Longwall 17 extraction was 5.2 megalitres per day (ML/day) – this represents 64% of total mine inflow for the period.

Compared with the previous longwall, the total mine inflow increased by 23% and the inflow in Area 3B increased by 36%.

Seepage losses from Avon Dam have been estimated by regional and local scale numerical models to be in the range 0.09 to 0.69 ML/day as at the end of Longwall 17.

Longwall 17 passed beneath, or within 400m of, Swamps 14, 23, 149 and 35a.

  • A Level 3 TARP for shallow groundwater remains in place at Swamp 14 from previous Longwalls.
  • Shallow groundwater at Swamp 23 has been increased to a Level 3 TARP.
  • Soil Moisture at Swamp 14 has been increased to a Level 3 TARP.

Reduction in aquatic habitat for over 2 years at Donalds Castle Creek and WC21 constitutes a Level 3 TARP trigger.

In summary — we are losing loads of water into the mine due to subsidence effects. Endangered Upland Swamps are being drained dry by this mining, reducing their ability to act as filters and holders of water in the ecosystem. Lastly, Donalds Castle Creek is being trashed and the aquatic life there is dying.

Stay tuned for update #3!

If you’re super keen and want to read the report yourself, you can find it here.

Protect Our Water Alliance

Dendrobium Damage Update #1

South32 has finished mining Longwall 17 in “Area 3b” in the Dendrobium Mine, which of course is on unceded Dharawal Country, and just north of the Avon Reservoir.

Your faithful friends here at POWA have trawled through the End of Panel report, and distilled some Dendrobium Damage for you. Spoiler alert: longwall mining is highly destructive, and South32’s contractors only appear to have surveyed a small part of the undermined (and adjacent) area.

Update #1

The extracted longwall has a length of 1901 metres, a void width of 305m, and a maximum cutting height up to 3.9m.

During the extraction of Longwall 17, forty new surface impacts were identified.

  • Thirty of these impacts were observed on natural features.
  • The remaining ten impacts were observed on built features such as fire roads and other access tracks

Only two out of five Aboriginal cultural heritage sites located within the Subject Area were visited.

In summary — a bloody big longwall, and a suspiciously low number of identified impacts over such a large footprint.

Also, the surveyors identified ONLY FIVE cultural sites in the area – and only checked on 40% of them. We know first nations folks in the Illawarra refute this quantitative, piecemeal approach to evaluating the impact of mining on the cultural integrity of the landscape.

Stay tuned for update #2!

If you’re super keen and want to read the report yourself, you can find it here.