4th September 2025
The Nature Conservation Council of New South Wales (NCC), the state’s leading environmental organisation, has condemned the Federal Government’s decision to extend Glencore’s Ulan thermal coal mine near Mudgee.
“This project will drive up global emissions, destroy local habitats, and lead to more extreme climate disasters here and abroad,” said Jacqui Mumford, Chief Executive Officer of Nature Conservation Council NSW.
Extending this mine until 2035 will extract an additional 18.8 million tonnes of coal, on top of the existing approval for 20 million tonnes each year.
“Burning this coal will add tens of millions of tonnes of carbon pollution to the atmosphere at a time when the world urgently needs to reduce emissions,” Ms Mumford said.
This project is now part of a growing list of coal expansion projects across the state.
“Every new coal project locks us further into climate chaos, putting NSW emission reduction targets at risk and undermining global efforts to limit warming to safe levels.”
“Ulan’s expansion will clear up to 37 hectares of native vegetation, destroying critical habitat for threatened species including koalas and swift parrots. These ecosystems are already under immense pressure from land clearing, drought, and fire. Losing them to prop up the coal industry is reckless and irreversible.”
“Not only is the Ulan mine extension a climate disaster, it is also an assault on NSW’s most iconic wildlife. Clearing 37 hectares of native vegetation will put already vulnerable koala populations under further stress, compounding the risks they face from Yancoal’s proposed Moolarben mine expansion nearby, which threatens more than 113 hectares of critical koala habitat.”
“These projects are fragmenting and destroying the very landscapes koalas need to survive, pushing the species closer to extinction while governments continue to approve new coal.”
“This is not an isolated decision. It is part of a wave of coal mine expansions currently under consideration in NSW and nationally, with more than 13 approvals granted since they took power in 2022.
“Assessing projects in isolation hides their cumulative impact. Together, they amount to climate sabotage.”
“These projects put NSW and Australia on the wrong side of history. Instead of leading the transition to clean energy, governments are entrenching fossil fuel dependency that will worsen the climate crisis, destroy biodiversity, and threaten the health and safety of communities.”