JOBS for Goulburnians will be offered in a neighbouring shire’s coalmine.

South Korean steel maker POSCO and Australian metallurgical producer Cockatoo Coal acquired a portion of land straddling the Hume Highway between Sutton Forest and Berrima in 2010 for the Hume Coal Project.

Exploratory drilling and environmental monitoring started in 2011.

Last year, the project lodged a preliminary environmental assessment with the NSW Department of Planning and Environment; and an environmental impact statement will be released for public exhibition in June this year.

Pending the project’s determination in 2017, including the granting of a development application and mining lease, Hume Coal will start recruiting.

The project expects to create at least 300 jobs from 2020 onwards, assuming the development proceeds, and is undertaking to employ people who live within a 45-minute drive, which just takes in Goulburn.

Hume Coal says it is already funding $250,000 each year for training and development of apprentices – in childcare, landscaping, electrical, building and clerical services – for non-mine roles to support project operations.

Hume Coal spokesman Ben Fitzsimmons says the project is “still exploring, but moving into the approvals process”.

“It typically takes about three years for a mine to be approved,” he said.

The project has been a matter of contention in neighbouring Wingecarribee Shire, where the proposed mine site is based, with residential concerns about groundwater and other environmental impacts as well as amenity.

“There will be no [coal seam] gas coming out of our coal mine, because we’re on the edge of the coal basin, which extends all the way from halfway between [Goulburn] and Moss Vale [to Sydney],” Mr Fitzsimmons said.

Gas has drained out of this basin towards Sydney over “millions” of years because of the type of rock stratification in the area, he said.

He said the project was “economical and viable” despite the commodities market, partly because there was no gas to drain, “a huge cost for mines”.

He also said the underground mine would have environmental credentials.

“The coal down here is used to make steel; the coal in the Hunter [region] is used to make power.

So people who argue [the project is environmentally unsound] … what we’ll make is coal for the steel used to make renewables.”

The Hume Coal Project will have representatives at the Southern Highlands Chamber of Commerce and Industry jobs expo on May 25 at Mittagong RSL.

An information session for Goulburn is planned, but as yet unconfirmed.