PERTH (miningweekly.com) – The $16.5-billion Carmichael coal mine and rail project, in Queensland, was again facing legal challenges after the Australian Conservation Foundation (ACF) on Monday lodged papers with the Federal Court challenging the project’s recently granted environmental approval.

In October, federal Environment Minister Greg Hunt for the second time granted the Carmichael project development approval, after the Minister’s original environmental approval was overturned by the Australian Federal Court after it was appealed by a greens group on the grounds that Hunt had failed to consider conservation advice when making his decision on the project.

In his October granting of environmental approval, Grant said the project had now been approved in accordance with national law and subject to 36 of the strictest conditions in Australian history.

However, the ACF would argue that the Minister failed to consider whether the impact of climate pollution, resulting from burning the mine’s coal, would be inconsistent with Australia’s international obligations to protect the World Heritage-listed Great Barrier Reef.

The ACF would also argue that the Minister failed to take into account the submission by the black throated finch recovery team. Scientists from that team have warned that if the Carmichael project went ahead it would push the finch closer to extinction.

“Minister Hunt has acknowledged climate change is affecting the Great Barrier Reef, yet the approval of the Carmichael mine will create more pollution, make global warming worse and irreversibly damage the Reef,” said ACF president Geoff Cousins.

“ACF believes the [Michael] Turnbull government’s reapproval of a coal mine that would produce more climate pollution than New Zealand does annually is reckless and irresponsible.”

The Queensland Resources Council (QRC) said on Monday that the latest challenge to the environmental approval represented yet another chapter in the green activists’ campaign to disrupt and delay coal project approvals in the state and federal courts.

QRC CEO Michael Roche warned that while the court action cited global emissions and the supposed effect on the Great Barrier Reef, if successful, this action could cause an increase in global emissions, as Queensland’s lower-emission coal would stay in the ground and coal demand from India would be met from other countries with higher-emission coal, such as Indian or Indonesian coal.

“The prospects for the ACF challenge to be successful are remote – the argument they are making has already been rejected by the Queensland Land Court multiple times and most recently by the Queensland Supreme Court. However, the win the ACF is looking for is a further delay in this huge job generating project.”

Project developer Adani on Monday expressed confidence in the soundness of Hunt’s environmental approval of the Carmichael project.

However, a spokesperson for the company said the ACF's public statements made clear that they would seek to drive the jobs and the benefits created by the coal project offshore, exporting jobs and economic opportunities that Australia's second-largest export industry could deliver.

“It is one thing for a project's approval to be challenged. It is quite another to wait for previous challenges to fail, then launch new ones on different grounds over and over again, seeking endless delay and endlessly abusing process,” the spokesperson said.

“When Minister Hunt announced the mine had been reapproved, some activist groups went so far as to indicate they would launch an appeal despite not being sure of the grounds on which to do so. These constant delay tactics, seeking to stall progress for up to two years, are consistent with the activist blueprint for politically motivated opposition to Australia’s strictly regulated coal industry,” the spokesperson said.

The proposed project would comprise an opencut and underground mine, running for a period of some 90 years and producing an average 60-million tonnes a year of thermal coal.