Battle lines drawn over coalmine dubbed ‘Tasmania’s Adani’
Conservationists have warned of deep community opposition to plans for a major coal mine.
Conservationists have warned of “broad and deep” community opposition to plans for a major coal mine dubbed “Tasmania’s Adani”.
The Tasmanian government on Wednesday confirmed it had granted a Perth-based mining exploration company $50,000 to further its exploration for coal in the state’s rural Midlands.
Midland Energy Pty Ltd last month launched a $10 million equity raising bid in the United States to help it become “Australia’s newest coal miner, exporting to Asia and India”.
The company, which earlier this year has set up a Nevada-based affiliate as an investment vehicle, claims its two Tasmanian tenements contain 89 million tonnes of “export quality, clean coal”.
However, the concept of large scale coal mining in Tasmania, which is approaching 100% renewable power and whose tourism and agricultural brands trade on its “clean, green” image, has triggered hostility and disbelief.
Even the pro-investment Liberal government appears less than enthusiastic about the idea of coal mining in the Midlands, which might conflict with its policy against mining on agricultural land.
“The Tasmanian government actively encourages mineral exploration, however, the government has not granted, or been asked to grant, a mining lease for the land in question,” said Resources Minister Guy Barnett.
“Midland Energy and associated companies have held relevant exploration licences since they were granted under the former Labor Government in 2008. Any proposal for mining would be subject to rigorous assessment, and must be in the state’s best interests.”
The government coolness is at odds with the company’s claims, in a press release, that the $50,000 grant was “a significant endorsement from the state government for Midland Energy and its associated projects”.
The Wilderness Society, veteran campaigners for Tasmania’s old growth forests, on Wednesday said it was “stunned” by the coal push.
“These days, it’s sometimes hard to tell reality from satire, but yes, the prospect of a new coal mine in the heart of Tasmania isn’t just a bad joke, it’s apparently also a bad reality,” said society spokesman Tom Allen.
“Actively facilitating a coal mine is ecocidal, immoral and just plain wrong … Midland Energy … should understand that it will experience broad and deep community opposition.
“As an island community, we know our future lies in agriculture, tourism, culture and nature protection; not coal mines.”
Midland Energy co-founder Daniel Macri shrugged off the growing backlash, saying there were “always people for and against” mining proposals.
“Why not coal in Tasmania? It’s mined in every other state and exported,” Mr Macri told local radio. “And who are we in the West to say that the developing world can’t harness the cheap energy that we’ve had access to for 200 years?”
The state funding for further exploration would target new areas within the tenements not drilled since 2011, when the company began exploring the Midland coal reserves, he said.
He confirmed the company had no experience starting a coal mine, which would be some years off. “We’re an explorer … we’ll find the resource and obviously our hope is to advance that to mining if it’s economically viable,” he said.