PERTH (miningweekly.com) – ASX-listed resources developer Bathurst Resources on Thursday announced that the company had been granted an access arrangement for its Escarpment coal project, in New Zealand, by the Minister of Conservation.
MD Hamish Bohannan said that the approval completed another key step in getting the mine to production.
“Our focus now is on completing the consenting process and addressing the questions raised in the interim decision,” he noted.
The company has also provided the Environmental Court with additional detail around the environmental protection and mitigation measures, adding that two appeals on the decision were to be heard within the next week.
“Everyone accepts that there are parts of the Plateau with high conservation values, and our plans include modern mining techniques that will minimise impact and rehabilitate agreed areas, remedy damage caused by old mine workings and provide certainty to West Coast communities,” Bohannan said.
The Escarpment project forms part of the greater Buller coal project, and was expected to add some 225 direct jobs and around 800 indirect jobs to the region, as well as NZ$45-million a year in royalties and taxes from a production base of one-million tons of coal a year.