Two legal bids to stop $16.5bn Carmichael mine fail in Supreme Court

PERTH (miningweekly.com) – The $16.5-billion Carmichael rail and coal project has cleared another legal hurdle after the Queensland Supreme Court dismissed two legal challenges to the grant of a mining lease and environmental approvals.

The first had been a challenge by activist Adrian Burragubba, and the second by environmental group Coast and Country.

The claims were only two in a long list of litigation being levelled against the proposed coal project.

Queensland Resources Council CEO Ian Macfarlane said that green activists had used the legal challenges to disrupt and delay multiple resource projects in Queensland, costing the state revenue.

“The activists don’t ever expect to be successful with their layer upon layer of court cases and subsequent appeals. Their interest is only in further delaying projects from delivering real construction and production jobs. The activists’ tactics mean that the only jobs being created are for lawyers,” Macfarlane said.

The Australian Greens said that while it was disappointed with the Supreme Court outcomes, the party was proud of the “tenacious legal fight” to oppose the Carmichael project.

“When government fails to enforce or comply with their own laws, it falls to community groups to hold them to account. Public enforcement of laws is a crucial tenant of our democracy,” said Greens co-deputy leader and senator for Queensland, Larissa Waters.

She said the state government’s decision to declare the project a ‘critical infrastructure’ project was unprecedented for a private development.

“That despicable decision to prop up Adani’s reef destroying mega mine will come back to haunt [them].”

The proposed Carmichael project will comprise an opencut and underground mine, running for a period of 90 years and producing an average 60-million tonnes a year of thermal coal.

The Carmichael coal, railway and port project includes building Australia’s largest thermal coal mine, linked by a new 388 km standard gauge rail line to a new terminal at Abbot Point port near Bowen. It received approval from Minister Andrew Lynham in April this year, despite unresolved legal challenges and the prospect of further court appeals.