BAIRD GOVERNMENT INTRODUCES CHANGES TO NSW MINING POLICY

The Baird government plans to make it harder for major NSW mining projects to gain planning approval.

The government will release a draft amendment on Tuesday, which would effectively remove a provision to make a proposed mine’s economic benefits the “principal consideration” for approval of a project.

The decision comes at a time when revised applications of Rio Tinto’s Mount Thorley Warkworth mine and Anglo American’s Drayton South mine are still being assessed.

The revisions could affect hundreds of jobs in the region.

The independent Planning Assessment Commission is in its final stages of determining the outcome of the Mount Thorley expansion.