Coal news and updates

Cascade Coal challenges ICAC report in wake of Cunneen ruling

A mining company that secured a lucrative coal exploration licence over the Obeid family's farm is pushing ahead with a legal challenge to a report which led to the licence being cancelled, in an apparent bid to win compensation from the state government.

Cascade Coal has asked the NSW Court of Appeal to strike down an Independent Commission Against Corruption report which found the company's Mount Penny exploration licence was "so tainted by corruption"  it should be cancelled.

The company has previously valued the licence at $500 million.

The court heard on Monday that the ICAC has agreed to orders overturning corruption findings against four of Cascade Coal's founding investors, including mining mogul Travers Duncan.

Mr Duncan and his associates - former Krispy Kreme Australia chief executive John McGuigan, businessman John Atkinson and investment banker Richard Poole - were found to have acted corruptly by concealing the involvement of the Obeid family in the coal tenement.

But the High Court ruling in the commission's battle with Crown prosecutor Margaret Cunneen, SC, made those findings untenable.

Three Court of Appeal judges will convene in private to make the orders overturning the findings against the men, while the challenge to the report on Cascade Coal's licence will be heard in mid-June.

The ICAC has agreed to orders declaring the findings against the men were "not made according to law and [are] a nullity".

David Jackson, QC, for Messrs McGuigan and Poole, said the orders should be made "at the earliest available time" as the men's reputations had been affected and "their position should be vindicated".

Mr Duncan's lawyers have requested an additional declaration that is still in dispute between the parties.

Geoffrey Watson, SC, for the ICAC, said the additional order was "inappropriate" and was "a kind of declaratory statement against ICAC" that was not supported by the Cunneen decision.

The watchdog has previously said it does not believe the Cunneen ruling is relevant to the Cascade Coal litigation.

But Mr Jackson, who is also acting for the company, said the parties would make submissions to the court on the effect of the decision.

The parties will also make submissions on a separate High Court decision, handed down on the same day, which upheld the validity of NSW laws giving effect to the ICAC's recommendation to cancel Cascade Coal's licence.

The same laws cancelled Cascade coal's licence at nearby Glendon Brook, as well as listed company NuCoal's Doyles Creek licence.

NuCoal has already asked the Supreme Court to strike down the ICAC's recommendation that its licence be torn up, which was made in the same report as the recommendations affecting Cascade Coal.

"If the court finds in our favour it will give us a basis to seek compensation for our loss from the NSW government," NuCoal said in a statement on April 16.

The ICAC has urged Premier Mike Baird to pass retrospective laws to shore up its powers in the wake of the Cunneen ruling but he has yet to announce a decision.

source: http://www.smh.com.au