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Maules Creek blockade: Coal company says protesters will not stop mine

Protesters say $767m coalmine near Boggabri  would destroy forest and sacred Aboriginal cultural and burial sites

A coal company developing a new mine in northern NSW says protesters blocking access roads are a "nuisance" but will not stop the project going ahead.

More than 120 people on Tuesday morning blockaded entries to Whitehaven Coal's $767m Maules Creek project, near Boggabri, and attached themselves to bulldozers.

Protesters said just before midday that one of their group had been arrested by police.

"We need to remain here to stop Whitehaven and their contractors getting access to the forest to clear it," spokeswoman Georgina Woods said.

Clearing the forest for a road and railway line to service the open-cut coal mine would destroy valuable forest, animal habitat and Aboriginal sites, she said.

Australian Greens senator Lee Rhiannon, who was at the protest, said the federal environment minister, Greg Hunt, needed to act and withdraw his approval of the Maules Creek mine.

"No environment minister should have approved this level of habitat removal for any project let alone a coal mine with all the other associated problems," Rhiannon said.

Protesters said they had stopped construction work at the mine but it was understood workers for the principal contractor, Leighton Contractors, were on a rostered day off on Tuesday.

A Whitehaven Coal spokesman said the protests had not stopped plant work at the mine despite protesters' claims.

"Protests are a nuisance, mostly for the police, but they will not deter Whitehaven from getting on with building Maules Creek and delivering substantial benefits to the region," he said.

The company spokesman said protesters should respect the fact that the mine was an approved project that had passed the highest environmental approval standards.
Protesters should also honour commitments made under the Brigalow and Nandewar Community Conservation Act which zoned the Laird State Forest for forestry and mining, he said.

Source: www.theguardian.com