The NSW Planning Assessment Commission has given approval for the reopening of a coal mine in a region of the Blue Mountains that it had previously deemed to be "incompatible with the significant conservation of the site".
The commission's determination supporting the extension of the Invincible Coal Mine also came despite its conclusion that the current state of rehabilitation on the site had been "suboptimal" and a requirement to fill three residual voids was "unlikely to be achieved".
The independent agency had previously rejected a mine proposal made by then owner Coalpac Corp that had been granted by the Labor government in 2008.
In its 2014 report, the commission said open-cut mining intruding into the nearby towering sandstone pagodas in the Gardens of Stone posed "unacceptable risks and impacts, and only limited short-term benefits".
Castlereagh Coal, the project's owners since 2015, won a reversal of the commission's verdict by pledging to contain the mine's additional disturbance to 38 hectares and to complete unfinished rehabilitation work.
Brett Moore, the mine's project manager, said approval would secure "up to 35 full-time jobs", and boost the economy of Cullen Bullen, near Lithgow.
“Locals will be employed in high skilled and high-tech jobs, royalties will be generated for the state government, and small businesses will benefit from servicing the local mining industry," Mr Moore said in a statement.
The mine's output would be 2.7 million tonnes of poor-quality fuel known as "nut coal", which would mostly head to Manildra's Shoalhaven Starches Plant at Bombaderry.
The fuel source now accounts for about 30 per cent of the plant's energy costs, the PAC report said.
The mine, which is currently under care and maintenance, was acquired in 2015.
Keith Muir, director of the Colong Foundation for Wilderness, said the commission's reversal came even though its previous assessment had found conservation "to be the highest and best use of the area”.
The environmental group said a range of issues remain unresolved, such as, its water discharge points will be from the Baal Bone mine that will close this year.
The protection of one of the state's rarest butterflies, the purple copper butterfly, will rely on the replanting of its bushy habitat, a move that "has very little chance of working”, he said.
“On top of this is the old chestnut that the mine approval was justified so as to rehabilitate past mining areas, which is not a good argument because it’s a never ending one”, Mr Muir said.
A spokesman for Planning Minister Anthony Roberts said the minister never commented on PAC decisions.
Jeremy Buckingham, Greens resources spokesman, said it was "bonkers" to approve reviving an old coal mine in "the incredible Gardens of Stone ... just so [Manildra] can convert their Shoalhaven flour mill from gas to old fashioned coal boilers".
“In 2018, we should be assisting industry to transition to renewable energy, not approving new dirty, destructive coal mines," Mr Buckingham said.
