Contentious Queensland coalmine another step closer to approval

The Queensland government has announced a significant step to the approval of the New Acland coalmine expansion on the Darling Downs.

The New Acland coalmine expansion is another step closer to construction after an arduous 15-year quest for approval.

The third stage of the contentious mine expansion by the New Hope Group, near Oakey on the Darling Downs, was today approved by the Environment Authority.

Environmental approval is a significant step towards the project going ahead, with New Hope now relying on Resources Minister Scott Stewart to approve mining leases.

The future of the project will then proceed to the final stage of the process, which involves a licence to extract groundwater to be approved by the Department of Water.

New Acland Mine has taken a significant step closer to operation.

The Department of Environment and Science today approved the contentious project on the conditions of mining tenures.

“(The mining tenures process) includes a number of strict conditions,” the department announced. “Including ensuring that air and noise emissions from proposed activities are managed and monitored effectively so the specified limits are not exceeded.”

Mr Stewart said the State Government supported the resources industry but “we’ve always said we will let the legal process finish before any decision was made about New Acland”.

“Like any project, I will give careful consideration to the mining lease application for stage three of New Acland when I receive it,” he said.

“Any resources project must stack up environmentally, socially and financially.”

The latest milestone comes exactly a month after the mine expansion cleared its last hurdle, with approval from the Co-ordinator-General.

The mine has effectively been shuttered since November, with hundreds of workers made redundant in recent years.

Opposition energy spokesman Pat Weir, a vocal supporter of the project, described the environmental approval as “very encouraging”.

“There should be no impediments now for the granting of associated water licence and mining leases – then we can get on with it and get those workers back to work,” he said.

Various environmental advocates, including the Oakey Coal Action Alliance and Lock the Gate Alliance, have fought to stall the project and Mr Weir expects the advocacy groups to contest further.

The new stage closed pending approval

“They have said they will continue to object and tie it up in court and try and do anything they can to stop it,” he said.

“But all conditions have been met so it should just proceed.”

Greens MP Michael Berkman, who worked closely with advocates protesting against the project in his previous career as an environmental lawyer, expected the objections to the project’s water licensing to act as a final barrier to stall the approval.

He described the announcement of the environmental approval as a “devastating blow” to Acland locals and farmers.

“We’re talking about farms that have been with some of these families for generations, who know this terrain like the back of their hands and who are genuinely concerned, and have been for years, about the threat to groundwater,” he told The Courier-Mail.

The success of the Greens and the so-called “teal” independents at the recent federal election was widely viewed as a mandate for progressing climate conscious policies and shifting away from fossil fuel industries.

In the days after the poll, Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk insisted her Government was progressive and would prioritise sustainable policies.

But the environmental approval of the New Acland expansion proved this was a “brief rhetorical shift” with “lip service to what the electorate is calling for”, Mr Berkman said.

“Within weeks going back to business as usual, and approving new thermal coal mines — it’s a recipe for climate disaster,” he said.

Originally published as Contentious Queensland coalmine another step closer to approval