The Queensland Land Court has ruled in favour of Glencore in its bid to amend an environmental authority to allow it to extend the mining footprint at the Rolleston coal mine.
The Spring Creek North Continuation Project (marked in green on map left) will result in new disturbance of about 592.2ha on the company’s mining leases in that area, with the proposed Spring Creek North pit covering 454ha, documents show.
About 33.7Mt of thermal coal is to be extracted from that area over a period of about 20 years.
The court heard that mining the area would not see the Rolleston operation exceed its approved extraction rate of 19 Mtpa or increase the life of the mine.
Lock the Gate Alliance and Environmental Advocacy in Central Queensland were listed as objectors in the case.
Land Court member James McNamara recommended that Glencore’s application be approved and noted that the draft EA in its amended form addressed many of the concerns of objectors.
“The balance of competing needs and considerations favours a recommendation that the draft EA be granted,” he said
He noted that the project must still go through a process under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act.