Australian govt raises objection on green nod to GVK project

The objections raised by the federal government can delay the progress of the project.

In a statement, federal minister for environment, Tony Burke, said that the Queensland government has not provided a sound assessment and he will be required to obtain the information that Queensland has failed to provide.

Last week, the Queensland province government had given environmental clearance to Alpha coal mine project that included constructing a railway line to port.

When contacted, a GVK official said the company is yet to get details and cannot offer comment at this point of time.

Bruke said, "Make no mistake, if I were to deal with a report which does not fully address the environmental issues ... Then there are serious repercussions for the soundness of the decision which follows."

"Because the Queensland government has not provided a sound assessment, I will be required to obtain the information that Queensland has failed to provide. This will result in unnecessary and costly delays for the project," he added.

Last year, GVK paid USD 1.26 billion to buy the coal assets and related logistics infrastructure in Australia from Hancock through a group company GVK Coal Developers (Singapore).

The Alpha project which is expected to generate 4,000 jobs at peak is being run by Hancock Coal in which 79 per cent owned by GVK and 21 per cent owned by Gina Rinehart, the world's richest woman.

After giving environmental clearance to the project, the Queensland Government had urged the federal ministry to make a decision on the project within the 30-day timeframe required under a state/federal bilateral agreement.

Hancock Coal anticipates the construction period to occur between 2013 and 2016, subject to relevant approvals being granted for the project, GVK had said earlier.

The expected life of the mine is 30 years, with sufficient resources to potentially extend the project life beyond that time.

Reacting to the development, GVK said it has always and will continue to have a positive and professional working relationship with all federal and state assessment agencies of Australia.