PERTH (miningweekly.com) – The Queensland Land Court in December recommended that the New Acland Mine Stage 3 mining leases and the environmental authority amendment application be granted, subject to conditions, with the Queensland Resources Council (QRC) now calling for the project approvals to be granted.

Project owner New Hope Corporation said in December that the company would continue to work with the relevant Queensland government departments to progress the Stage 3 approvals applications and seek to secure their grant as soon as possible.

New Hope subsidiary New Acland Coal currently operates the existing New Acland mine as a 4.8-million-tonne-a-year opencut coal mine, however, the mine’s reserves are depleted. The Stage 3 expansion project will increase the mine’s yearly output to 7.5-million tonnes and will extend the operation’s life by 12 years beyond the current end-date of mid-2020.

Once approved the New Acland Stage 3 project will create 187 new jobs within the first six months, 487 jobs within 18 months and inject A$7-billion into the economy.

The QRC has welcomed the decision by the Land Court, with CEO Ian Macfarlane saying it has taken 14 years for the project to finally reach this stage, with the initial development application lodged by New Hope Group in 2007.

“Since this time, almost every New Acland employee has lost their job, and local communities and businesses have suffered greatly because of the seven-year delay in the final approval of the opencut mine expansion.

“New Hope’s Stage 3 expansion of the New Acland mine was approved for development by Queensland’s Coordinator General in 2014, but to get to this decision today it has taken seven long years of pointless lawfare – at great cost to the taxpayer, the company, and to all the employees who lost their jobs,” Macfarlane said.

“This project had gone through all of the state regulatory channels and consultation processes, had been approved by the Coordinator General and was supported by the local community, but has been in limbo because of a small group of activists prepared to use any legal means to stop this project from proceeding.

“The QRC congratulates New Hope on its perseverance, and we look forward to seeing how the project progresses from here.

“Resources projects like this are the reason the Queensland economy and our job market have remained so strong during the Covid-19 pandemic.”

Queensland Resources Minister Scott Stewart said in December that the state government had been awaiting the legal process to finish, before making a decision on New Acland Stage 3.

“As a government, we will now thoroughly consider the recommendation from the Land Court of Queensland,” he added.