PERTH (miningweekly.com) – The New South Wales Minerals Council has lashed out at the naysayers emerging against the recent environmental approval of the Watermark coal project, being developed by China’s Shenhua Group.

Federal environment Minister Greg Hunt earlier this month gave his backing to the $1.5-billion project, which would comprise the construction and operation of a ten-million-tonne-a-year openpit mine, with a mine life of some 30 years. The project was expected to employ about 600 full-time employees during construction and 434 full-time employees during operation.

The backlash against the environmental approval was immediate, with the Australian Greens party and environmental groups condemning the approval, saying that the federal government was placing overseas mining interests ahead of the interest of local farmers in the region.

“Discussions around the commonwealth approval of Shenhua’s Watermark mine have been dominated by some outlandish exaggerations by those opposing the mine. There has been virtually no regard for the facts, nor consideration of the huge economic benefits to the community, including hundreds of jobs, that this project will bring,” New South Wales Minerals Council CEO Stephen Galilee said.

“The Shenhua project will create 625 local jobs during the peak construction phase with 425 jobs during operation, in a region experiencing an unemployment rate of 7.5%.”

Galilee noted that numerous myths have been propagated about the Watermark project, including that the project would be located on black-soil plains and would consist of a 35 km² pit, while the actual pit would be no more than 1.5 km² and the project would be located in the ridge country adjacent to the black-soil plains.

“The project will also be subject to rolling rehabilitation during the life of the project.  The project will not be operated by foreign workers, but will provide hundreds of jobs for local people,” Galilee said.

He pointed out that the Federal Independent Expert Scientific Committee as well as four independent reviews had thoroughly investigated and assessed the project and established that the impact of the project on local groundwater is not significant.

“The fact is, this vital job-creating project has been thoroughly assessed over a period of seven years. It has been a through and incredibly rigorous approval process and has been approved. Shenhua should now be allowed to get on with this project that will create jobs and contribute to the economic strength of the New England Northwest and New South Wales,” Galilee said.