PERTH (miningweekly.com) – The Queensland Resources Council (QRC) has welcomed the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority’s (GBRMPA’s) grant of dredge permits to expand the Abbot Point Port.

“The dredging project goes hand-in-hand with the development of new coal reserves in the Galilee basin, where proposed projects have a forecast investment of $28.4-billion and will provide more than 15 000 jobs during construction and 13 000 operational jobs,” said CME CEO Michael Roche.

The GBRMPA on Friday granted the dredge permits, allowing the North Queensland Bulk Ports Corporation to dispose of about three-million cubic meters of dredge spoil at a deep-water location offshore Abbot Point, subject to strict environmental conditions.

Authority chairperson Russell Reichelt said he recognised the fierce debate and community concern that the project had generated and shared with everyone a strong desire to ensure the Reef remained a great natural wonder.

“This approval is in line with the agency’s view that port development along the Great Barrier Reef coastline should be limited to existing ports,” Reichelt said.

“As a deep-water port that has been in operation for nearly 30 years, Abbot Point is better placed than other ports along the Great Barrier Reef coastline to undertake expansion, as the capital and maintenance dredging required will be significantly less than what would be required in other areas.

“It’s important to note the sea floor of the approved disposal area consists of sand, silt and clay and does not contain coral reefs or seagrass beds.”

Roche said on Friday that he was confident GBRMPA’s decision was based on scientific evidence, and not “swayed by the emotive activists' campaigns”.

However, the project’s biggest opposition – Greenpeace – has said that the decision went against opposition from “tens of thousands of Australians”.

The lobby group pointed out that the conditions imposed by the GBRMPA required the port’s managers to do further studies on the potential impacts of dumping the dredge spoil so close to fringing reefs and the Catalina plane wreck.

“Since dredging can only begin during the northern dry season, this is likely to slow down the project so much that dredging won’t get under way until 2015,” Greenpeace said in a statement.

“This is another massive delay for companies like Adani, whose Galilee coal projects are already seriously behind schedule.

“That gives us time. Time to build public opposition to dredging in our precious reef, to keep the pressure on politicians, but most importantly, to expose Adani and the other coal companies behind this dreadful plan, and convince financial institutions not to finance such a destructive development.”

Federal Environment Minister Greg Hunt previously imposed unprecedented environmental conditions on the dredging project including that 150% of the total fine sediments potentially available for re-suspension in the marine environment must be offset by a reduction in the load of fine sediments entering the marine environment from the Burdekin and Don catchments.

The Minister has also imposed a cap of 1.3-million cubic metres of sediment that can be dredged or disposed of in a year and those activities can only be undertaken between March and June each year to protect water quality during critical times for seagrass growth and coral spawning.