PERTH (miningweekly.com) – The path has been cleared for coal developer Bathurst Resources to continue with the development of its Escarpment mine, after the appeals period on the final Environmental Court decision to grant consent for the project, lapsed without an appeal being lodged.
Earlier this month, Bathurst announced that it had reached an agreement with the Royal Forest and Bird Protection Society of New Zealand Incorporated (Forest & Bird), over the Escarpment project planned for the Mount Rochfort Conservation Area on the Dennison Plateau on the West Coast of the country.
Forest & Bird has been the principal appellant in various appeals against the environmental consent for the Escarpment coal project, and have also been party to all appeals relating to a separate climate change declaration process.
Bathurst told shareholders on Tuesday that with the appeals period now having lapsed, there could be no further legal challenges to the resource consent process, adding that the company was now fully committed to starting mining as soon as possible.
The company has started on work to submit 25 management plans to the Department of Conservation, Iwi and the local councils. It was anticipated that the last of these plans would be signed off by mid-January.
Following the certification of all plans, an Authority to Enter and Operate would be issued by the Department of Conservation, allowing mining earthworks to start.
First production from the Escarpment mine was expected in the first quarter of 2014, as part of the construction process, while steady-state mining would be under way by June next year.
The Escarpment project was expected to produce some 500 000 t/y by 2015, ramping up to 1.5-million tonnes a year by 2016.