Landholder questions environmental approval process for Wandoan coal mine

 Virginia Tapp

A landowner in North Queensland says the Environmental Impacts Statement for the Southern Hemisphere's largest open cut coal mine is flawed.

George Houen has been involved in the sale of a number of properties to make way for the Wandoan Coal mine, and says the EIS was conducted assuming that Xstrata would own all land within the mining lease.

But he says the fact that three landholders are unlikely to sell means conditional approval of the mine was wrongly granted.

"Owners of all the properties within the mining leases got no consideration under the Environmental Protection Act," he said.

"Now the situation is that the minister has paid no regard to that in granting the Environmental Authority.

"Those remaining landholders have been denied their rights under the Environmental Protection Act."

 Original Article Here