PERTH (miningweekly.com) – The Queensland Resources Council (QRC) has urged the Queensland government to immediately approve the New Acland Stage 3 project, following a Court of Appeal decision in favour of miner New Hope.

The Court of Appeal on Tuesday ruled against an appeal made by activist group Oakey Coal Action Alliance, which challenged a Supreme Court decision to set aside a ruling from the Land Court, refusing mining lease applications for the New Acland Stage 3 project.

The ruling comes just days after New Hope laid off 150 staff at its New Acland operation, as approvals for the Stage 3 expansion dawdled.

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 some 12 years beyond the current end-date of mid-2020.

New Hope has consistently called on the state government to advance approvals for the Stage 3 expansion, with CEO Andrew Boyd saying on Wednesday that with the Appeals Court ruling now in place, there was nothing standing in the way of the state government awarding the approvals.

“Both the Premier and Mines Minister Anthony Lynham stated last week that they would make a decision following the Court of Appeal. The Court of Appeal yesterday ruled in favour of New Hope Group, paving the way for the state government to approve New Acland Stage 3 immediately,” said Boyd.

“It’s time for the Premier to end the uncertainty.”

QRC CEO Ian Macfarlane has echoed this call, saying that there could be no more hold-ups or delays in gaining approvals.

“The New Acland Stage 3 mine should go ahead, securing the jobs of the 150 workers who are facing redundancy because of more than ten years of delays,” Macfarlane said.

“There is a precedent for the government to act. In 2007, Anna Bligh’s government legislated to guarantee operations at Xstrata’s Wollombi project in Central Queensland in response to a court ruling.

“This is in sharp contrast to the [current] government, which has refused to act to save the jobs of 150 workers at the Acland mine, where redundancy proceedings have started.

“In fact, the government doesn’t have to take that extra step to legislate, it could simply approve the mining lease and associated water licence to allow the expansion to go ahead.”