A NSW coal mine is back on the table after a string of legal issues. 

In 2019, the mothballed Dartbrook Coal Mine was denied a five-year extension by the NSW Independent Planning Commission (IPC).

“A five-year extension would not be in accordance with the principles of ecologically sustainable development or inter-generational equity and, as such, is not in the public interest,” the IPC said at the time. 

But this week, the NSW Land and Environment Court upheld mine owner Australian Pacific Coal’s appeal, leading the state government to approve the five-year extension after “detailed submissions” were weighed up in court.

Australian Pacific Coal is known as ‘AQC’ on the stock exchange. In 2019, it applied to modify its development application in a proposal dubbed ‘MOD 7’.

The court has now found “that MOD 7 would not significantly increase the scale, intensity, or environmental impacts of the already approved project”.

“The proposed conditions and the applicant’s decision to accept refusal of the alternative coal clearance system, the minister is now satisfied that the concerns forming the basis of the initial partial refusal of MOD 7 have been addressed,” the judgement read.

“The parties are agreed that when compared with the existing approved mining operation, MOD 7 will not have significantly increased environmental consequences.”

Mining can now recommence in the Kayuga Seam, but only using bord-and-pillar methods until an extraction plan is approved.

“Mining operations will remain limited by the maximum annual extraction limit, which controls the intensity of the mining operations over the course of the five-year extension,” Senior Commissioner of the Court Susan Dixon said.

“The parties are agreed that when compared with the existing approved mining operation, MOD 7 will not have significantly increased environmental consequences.”