Enviro group claims false info used in Maules Creek approval
PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Environmental group Lock the Gate Alliance has claimed that ASX-listed coal miner Whitehaven Coal falsified information in its efforts to get environmental clearance for the proposed Maules Creek coal mine, in New South Wales.
Lock the Gate alleged this week that two new independent ecologists had confirmed that the coal miner provided both the state and federal governments with misleading information, with the ecologists claiming the biodiversity offset proposed by Whitehaven was mapped incorrectly, and contained a common vegetation type, not the endangered ecosystem claimed by Whitehaven.
The green group noted that both the state and federal governments approved the Maules Creek mine on the grounds that the biodiversity offsets contained identical endangered ecosystems as those that would be cleared for the mining area.
In September, the Federal Court dismissed an injunction against the start of construction work at Maules Creek.
The injunction was brought by environmental group Northern Inland Council for the Environment, or NICE, in an effort to halt construction before a judgment was made in a separate case that was challenging the validity of the former Environment Minister’s approval of the mine.
The $767-million Maules Creek operation received the green light in early July to extract some 13-million tons of coal a year, with first coal delivery expected by the second half of 2014.
Lock the Gate said on Wednesday that the new information has now been handed over to newly appointed Environment Minister Greg Hunt, with the alliance appealing to the Minister to revoke the approval.
Whitehaven was unavailable for comment at the time of writing.
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