Greg Hunt approves $1.2bn Shenhua coalmine on Liverpool Plains

A contentious $1.2bn mining project on the New South Wales Liverpool Plains region has been approved by the federal environment minister, Greg Hunt, despite it being opposed by his cabinet colleague Barnaby Joyce as “anathema”.

The Watermark coalmine, operated by Chinese firm Shenhua, has been given the green light by Hunt, allowing for 268m tonnes of coal to be extracted until 2046.

The location of the proposed mine within the highly fertile agricultural region of the Liverpool Plains has provoked fury among some local farmers who claim the project will adversely affect crucial groundwater supplies in the area.

“Farming is dead today in the Liverpool Plains, I really hope Greg Hunt realises he has signed its death warrant,” said Tim Duddy, a cotton, cattle and grain farmer whose property will overlook the mine.

“This government are progressing the future of China and overlooking the interests of Australia. A mine like this has never been contemplated before here, you don’t need to be an engineer to understand its impact.”

Duddy, whose family has farmed in the region since 1837, said he expected his farming business to cease once the mine, which will be 3km from the town of Breeza, was operational.

The concerns of farmers were taken up by Joyce, who has argued that a mine should not be placed on the productive soils of the Breeza Plains, which form part of the Liverpool Plains.

“I just don’t like the idea of a mine in the middle of the Breeza Plains, I think it’s an anathema,” Joyce said in January.

Shenhua has insisted that the mine will have minimal impact upon groundwater supplies and the mine was approved by the NSW government’s planning assessment commission earlier this year.

Hunt has placed further conditions on the mine, insisting that the company provide an independently-audited water management plan. Shenhua will be allowed to flatten 771 hectares of endangered local ecology, most of it box gum woodland.

The environment minister said the project had been “subject to 18 of the strictest conditions in Australian history”.

“There will be no impact on the availability of water for agriculture,” he said. “The conditions I have imposed limit water use to less than 0.09% of available groundwater – that’s less than 1/1000th of the resource and less than the amount of water from one agricultural bore.

“The conditions I have imposed have placed the black soil plains off limits for mining. The project area is restricted to the ridge country around Mt Watermark.

“The conditions I have imposed include the power to stop work and stop mining if there are any impacts on agricultural water supply, and if this occurs, the mine must immediately provide an alternate water supply to farmers.”

Hunt said the community would have an “ongoing role” in its operation through a consultative committee and that he was “well aware” of the importance of the productive soils of the region, which spans more than a million hectares of north-western NSW.

Tony Windsor, former independent federal MP for the area, said it was “absolute madness” for Hunt to approve the mine.

“We’ve got the biggest water system in the Murray Darling basin here, we still don’t understand the connectivity of the underground aquifers,” he said.

“If Barnaby Joyce is concerned about agriculture, how on Earth could he allow something like this to proceed? Joyce has done nothing. He’s had to agree with Tony Abbott about going on Q&A but he could be a good local member and disagree on this one.”

Shenhua welcomed the approval, which it said followed five years of scientific study of the area for mining.

“Today’s decision to approve the Watermark project is the final, irrefutable confirmation there will be no adverse impacts on the region’s groundwater and impacts on sensitive ecological areas have been appropriately managed and offset,” said Paul Jackson, manager of the project.

“The minister’s decision relies on one of the most comprehensive groundwater studies undertaken in NSW and demonstrates mining can coexist with agriculture while unlocking new opportunities for employment and economic growth in regional Australia.”

According to published research by University College London, Australia will have to leave 90% of its known coal reserves in the ground to help the world avoid runaway climate change caused by warming beyond 2C.

Hunt, who will shortly unveil Australia’s post-2020 emissions reduction targets, has repeatedly stressed that the government remains committed to a 2C limit on global warming.

Joyce said he would “forever” oppose the mine and the approval of it by Hunt, his colleague, showed “the world has gone mad”.

“I’ve never supported the Shenhua mine,” said. “I think it is ridiculous that you would have a major mine in the midst of Australia’s best agricultural land.

“I’ve done everything in my power to try and stop the mine. We brought about further investigations; we had an independent expert scientific review.

“I feel this approval is unfortunate, but at the very least it gives the minister for the environment the condition that if any of the modelling does not turn out to be factual he has the capacity to stop it at that point.”