Maules Creek construction continuing despite legal bid to block mine
PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Coal miner Whitehaven Coal on Friday said that it would not allow the legal action by an environmental group to halt the progress of its proposed Maules Creek mine, in New South Wales.
The miner told shareholders that an environmental group had started proceedings in the Federal Court against Whitehaven and the federal Environmental Minister, challenging the validity of the environmental approval, which was handed down earlier this month.
The Federal Court would not determine whether the project should be approved, but would rather determine whether then federal Minister Tony Burke committed an error of law in granting the approval.
“The mere commencement of the litigation does not preclude the company from relying on the approval to proceed with construction,” Whitehaven said in a statement, adding that the company was keen to ensure that the litigation was determined as soon as possible.
“If the court was to find that there was any legal error in the Minister’s granting of the approval, the company will request that the Minister promptly cure the error, re-determine the application, and grant a new approval,” the company stated.
The $767-million Maules Creek operation received the green light in early July to extract some 13-million tons of coal a year, with first coal delivery expected by the second half of 2014.
The project would employ some 340 workers and contractors during construction, and 470 during operations.
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