Share This Emily Laurence for ABC News Australia:
An analyst says a coal company’s plan to mine further into the Sydney drinking water catchment appears to be “totally stranded” by the findings of an independent body.
But Wollongong Coal has played down the Planning Assessment Commission’s (PAC) most recent report, saying it has options and “the ball is in the company’s court”.
The commission’s second review into Wollongong Coal’s proposed expansion of its Russell Vale coal mine has found water and subsidence issues remain unresolved.
Tim Buckley is a director at the Sydney-based Institute of Energy Economics and Financial Analysis.
He said the commission’s outcome was fair given the risks to the community were greater than the company had let on, but he held concerns about the assessment process.
“I think one of the telling things about the PAC report is they have not assessed the financial capacity of the proponent, because that’s outside of their remit, but it’s 100 per cent entirely within the remit of the NSW Government,” Mr Buckley said.
“To me it’s just a major shortcoming in the entire review process that we are wasting government and community time assessing a project for a proponent that is effectively, according to their own auditors and their own management reports, in financial distress and unable to continue as a going concern without a continued lifeline from their parent in India,” he said.
Wollongong Coal expansion ‘totally stranded’ by planning report, mining analyst says.
WLC Price at posting:
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