PERTH (miningweekly.com) – The New South Wales Minerals Council has called for state government intervention after trespassers entered the much contested Maules Creek mine, owned by ASX-listed Whitehaven Coal.

The Minerals Council claimed that the trespassers cut down 187 down-lines attached to explosives, which had been prepared as part of the mine’s operations. It was alleged that the trespassers then attempted to fill in the blast holes with rubble.

Whitehaven Coal was unwilling to comment on Thursday, when approached by Mining Weekly Online, but a company spokesperson said that perimeter security at the mine site was being constantly reviewed.

“This reckless and dangerous act of industrial sabotage is a wake-up call for the New South Wales government. Those responsible have directly threatened lives, including their own, by tampering with powerful industrial explosive charges used in mine operations,” New South Wales Minerals Council CEO Stephen Galilee added. 

“Violent and dangerous activities have escalated in recent months. As well as deliberate trespassing and interference with heavy equipment by protesters, a security vehicle has been rammed, gates have been blockaded or destroyed, and now we have had industrial explosives being sabotaged,” he said.

Galilee said that the council had raised safety concerns about the trespassing of protesters with the state government on a number of occasions, and was hoping that the last case would incite action from the government.

“Without action from the government to deter this type of illegal access activity it is only a matter of time before someone is seriously hurt, despite the best efforts of police and emergency services personnel and site workers to ensure safety.”

Galilee noted that while people had a right to protest, it had to be within the law.

“No-one has the right to put others at risk. And when people choose to ignore the law they should be held accountable for their actions. It’s also time for the Greens, Lock the Gate, Greenpeace, and others that have so far condoned illegal protest activity to publicly condemn this latest dangerous and extreme act of sabotage. Any refusal to do so is tacit endorsement of risking the lives of others to make a political point,” he said.

The ASX-listed Whitehaven started opencut operations at Maules Creek in August this year, with the project expected to rail its first saleable coal in March next year.

The $767-million Maules Creek operation received the green light in early July 2013, to extract some 13-million tons of coal a year.