PERTH (miningweekly.com) – The New South Wales Court of Appeals has upheld a condition attached to the Ashton South East opencut project, requiring project developer Yancoal to acquire a privately owned property, which formed part of the proposed mining area.
The New South Wales Land & Environment Court in 2014 ruled that no development work associated with the proposed opencut operation could occur until Yancoal had acquired the property, which was currently held by a private owner.
The landowner has reportedly been steadfastly refusing to sell the land.
Yancoal said on Friday that the company was taking time to assess the implications of the judgment on the future development of the proposed project.
The Ashton coal mine currently has an underground production capacity of over 1.5-million tonnes a year, which is sold to a number of Asia-based steel mills. Opencut mining from the North East opencut operation started in 2004 and completed in early 2011.
The South East opencut operation was proposed to be a replacement source of opencut coal and could produce up to 3.6-million tonnes a year run-of-mine coal, over a seven-year mine life.
The project was initially approved by the New South Wales Planning Assessment Commission in 2012; however, the Hunter Environment Lobby appealed this decision in the Land and Environment Court.