BHP Billiton: Mike Baird buys out mine licence to protect Liverpool Plains farmland

COAL mining scrapped on the fertile Liverpool Plains after Mike Baird labelled it “too risky” and bought an exploration licence back from BHP Billiton.

COAL mining is being scrapped on the fertile Liverpool Plains after Premier Mike Baird labelled it “too risky” and spent $220 million buying an exploration licence back from BHP Billiton.

The state government will scrap BHP’s long-held Caroona coal exploration licence after announcing the buyback last night.

“After careful consideration, the NSW government has determined coal mining under these highly fertile black soil plains, as proposed by Labor, poses too great a risk for the future of this foodbowl and the underground water sources that support it,” Mr Baird said.

It is also negotiating to buy back large parts of the controversial Shenhua Watermark title at Gunnedah, a move also likely to cost hundreds of millions of dollars.

The state government will scrap BHP’s long-held Caroona coal exploration licence after announcing the buyback last night.

The Premier insisted coal mining in NSW has a “long and promising future” but said the government will “increase its efforts to remove all coal exploration licences from the strategic agricultural land of the Liverpool Plains”.

BHP paid $100 million for exploration rights for an underground coal mine at Caroona in 2006, covering around 350sq km.

The controversial Chinese-led $1.2 billion Shenhua Watermark mine was conditionally approved by the federal government last year but the exploration licence lapsed in February.

The Shenhua proposal sparked a series of protests centring on the impact to water sources and farmland. There is a further coal mine on the Liverpool Plains at Werris Creek, but this does not fall on prime agricultural land.

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