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GVK delayed by court challenge
Land for sale near Alpha.
GVK Hancock has delayed construction work at its proposed Alpha mine in the Galilee Basin until next year, and coal won’t be exported until 2017 - thanks to a land court battle. Five different groups have lodged an objection to the mine in Queensland’s Land Court, citing adverse impacts on ground and surface water, economic and social
impacts and contribution to climate change. The groups are made up of three individual landholders, an environmental organisation - Coast and Country Association of Queensland, and a Canberra-based individual. Lock the Gate’s Central Queensland coordinator Ellie Smith told Shift Miner that her organisation was not
involved, although individuals were taking legal action. A local landholder who has signed an agreement with GVK Hancock said it was now a waiting game. “We are being held to ransom by green groups,” he told Shift Miner. The court hearing date is set for September 16, 2013 meaning a significant delay is now likely, with the judgment set to be handed down no sooner than the end of this year or early next year. A 2011 legal challenge to Xstrata’s 30 million tonne per annum Wandoan coal mine, also in Queensland, delayed that project for over 13 months. The landholder, who did not want to be named, dismissed concerns over water and said landholders had signed makegood agreements with the mine. This meant the mine would have to provide any water that was lost. “There is plenty of underground water that has nothing to do with the artesian,” he said. This landholder said he is satisfied with his dealings with GVK Hancock, and that it is thanks to having a good solicitor - and most landholders now have an agreement. “A few might argue with them, but I got on well with them. When the mine does go ahead, people will have to realise the scale
of it. It’s going to be equal in size to the iron ore mines of WA - bloody enormous.” “Once this mine goes ahead, this basin will open up. Some people will suffer - I’d prefer there was no mine - but some people have to suffer for the rest of Queensland.” Coast and Country Association of Queensland were awaiting advice from their legal team before granting an interview with Shift Miner at time of publication. In a media statement, Lock the Gate’s Ellie Smith said the land court was the last recourse for concerned citizens. “GVK have already been in trouble by the member (judge in the land court), for implying the court was just a rubber stamping process. “I’m concerned that [GVK’s managing director Paul Mulder] is implying that these legitimate objections, in a process that has been clear from the day GVK decided to invest in the Alpha mine, should be viewed as the reason for a delay in their project. If they have failed to plan for this eventuality that is entirely their fault. “We will have to wait until the evidence is heard in the case to understand the full extent of the evidence brought against the approval of the mining lease and environmental authority for the Alpha mine.”
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16th September 2013