PERTH (miningweekly.com) – The Australian Greens party has called on the Queensland state government to ensure that diversified miner Anglo American did not back out of its environmental responsibilities at the Callide coal mine.
Last month, Anglo American entered into a share sale agreement with unlisted Batchfire Resources to divest of the thermal coal mine.
Batchfire raised less than A$750 000 from investors before inking the deal with Anglo, and following the completion of the transaction, the junior would be left with a A$121-million rehabilitation bill at the mine’s closure.
“We can’t let Anglo American dodge its responsibilities to provide local rehabilitation jobs by selling its mine to a shelf company with next to no assets without adequate security,” Greens deputy leader Larissa Waters said.
“The Queensland Audit Office has found that the state government has a terrible track record in collecting enough money upfront to cover the cost of workers rehabilitating the sites of resource projects,” she added.
“By making sure that rehabilitation bonds have been paid before resource companies go bust, state governments will be able to properly restore the environment and immediately create new local jobs in rehabilitation.”
Callide consists of an openpit thermal coal mine and associated processing infrastructure that produced 7.6-million tonnes of coal in 2014 and 5.6-million tonne in the first nine months of 2015. The majority of the coal produced was sold to two adjacent power stations under long-term contracts.