Queensland’s supreme court has rejected a bid by conservationists to have Gina Rinehart’s Galilee Basin coal joint venture with GVK stripped of environmental approval.
The environmental defenders office ran a challenge to the former state government’s approval of the Alpha mine, arguing it should be refused outright because of its impact on groundwater and climate change through carbon emissions.
It followed a landmark land court ruling last year that GVK Hancock’s application be refused, or granted only with further investigation of the impact it would have on groundwater.
Then environment minister Andrew Powell gave the mine an environmental authority five months after that ruling, subject to underground water monitoring.
The land court ruled that climate change impacts of the mine through coal burned overseas was outside the jurisdiction of state environmental laws.
Grazier Bruce Currie, whose land relies on the groundwater GVK Hancock will be drawing from, told Guardian Australia he was “very disappointed” with the supreme court ruling on Friday.
“If these mines go ahead, they’re going to destroy our groundwater supplies, which our business needs.
“It’s a business my wife and I have worked on for our lifetime and we went to the court to get justice. I think we’ve been failed.”
The court was due to publish its reasons around noon.
