Clive Palmer’s giant thermal coal mine plan squashed
Clive Palmer’s proposal to build the biggest thermal coal mine in Australia has been killed, with Qld’s environmental authority rejecting the project outright.
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Mining magnate Clive Palmer’s proposal to build the biggest thermal coal mine in Australia has been killed, with Queensland’s environmental authority rejecting the project.
The Department of Environment and Science on Monday confirmed it had decided to reject Waratah Coal’s environmental authority application for the proposed Galilee Coal Mine.
This is in line with the historic ruling of the Land Court late in 2022, which found the human rights of traditional owners would be unjustifiably limited should the project go ahead on top of the potential for serious climate harm.
Land Court president Fleur Kingham recommended both the mining lease and environmental authority be rejected, with the decision ultimately in the hands of the relevant government authorities.
A decision on Waratah Coal’s mining lease for the Galilee Coal project has not yet been made, but a lack of environmental authority means the Palmer-linked company can’t operate a mine on the site.
Waratah Coal, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Mineralogy Pty Ltd, previously proposed to create a new mine in the Galilee Basin and extract 40 million tonnes per annum of usable thermal coal through open cut and underground mining.
The mine would have had a forecast life span of 30 years and the coal would be exported to southeast Asia.
But a group of young First Nation’s activists and environment conservation group BimbleBox Alliance joined forces and challenged the project in court arguing it would impact the human rights of traditional owners and contribute to climate change.
Ms Kingham, in the Land Court decision, agreed that “several human rights would be limited by the project” including for the owners the BimbleBox nature reserve — which would have had two-thirds of its area mined from underground.
“I have decided the importance of preserving the right, given the nature and extent of the limitation, weighs more heavily in the balance than the economic benefits of the mine and the benefit of contributing to energy security for Southeast Asia,” she wrote.
Mr Palmer has been approached for comment.
This comes after another Clive Palmer backed mine became the first to be rejected under the nation’s environmental laws.
Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek in February announced she had blocked the project, deeming it would have an “unacceptable” impact on the areas surrounding it — including the Great Barrier Reef just 10km away.
The project was to be an open-cut thermal and coking coal mine 130km northwest of Rockhampton producing up to 10 million tonnes of thermal and coking coal for overseas export annually for 25 years.
The company had argued the project should go ahead because it would contribute 850 times more money per hectare into the economy than the world-heritage-listed Great Barrier Reef.
Originally published as Clive Palmer’s giant thermal coal mine plan squashed
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