The Spur Hill underground coking coal project located outside Denman in the Upper Hunter has been granted conditional by the NSW Mining & Petroleum Gateway Panel in March.

They are the first new coal project in NSW to lodge an application for a Gateway Certificate.

The Gateway panel was established by the NSW government last year. Its principal role is to assess the agricultural impacts of State significant mining or coal seam gas (CSG) proposals located on strategic agricultural land before a development application is lodged. These assessments are conducted against targeted scientific criteria relating to agricultural and water impacts.

The Spur Hill mine is a joint venture between Malabar Coal Limited (Malabar), and Spur Hill U.T. Pty Ltd. Malabar manages the Project via Spur Hill Management Pty Ltd (SHM). Spur Hill has a proposed mine life of up to 25 years, and involves mining up to 8 Mtpa of run-of-mine coal.

The proposed underground mining area is located entirely within Exploration Licence (EL) 7429. The project is expected to create job opportunities for around 300 employees when operations are established, and bring a range of economic benefits to the local area.