More litigation has been launched over Bathurst Resources Ltd's plans to mine specialist hard-coking coal from the Denniston plateau above Westport - at the same time as Bathurst signalled another mine application in the area is being prepared.
Forest and Bird and the West Coast Environment Network announced last week they would lodge an appeal in the High Court to the recent Environment Court decision which stopped the effects on climate change from being considered under the Resource Management Act (RMA).
The decision was made in relation to their yet-to-be-heard challenge in the Environment Court to more than 20 consents Bathurst was granted by West Coast councils last year.
While Bathurst has become increasingly tied up by litigation and negotiations with government departments, it said in a recent update it was preparing an application for its next mine, which could possibly be Whareatea West or Coalbrookdale tenements on the plateau.
The shelving of the climate change issues was essentially a favourable outcome for Bathurst, as it would have given a precedent-setting platform to environmentalists to hammer home their message on negative aspects of coal use and its contribution to global warming.
Just before the update, Bathurst revealed potential aerial transport systems it could build to transport more than 3 million tonnes of hard-coking coal off the Denniston plateau each year.
Forest and Bird wants a 5900ha reserve created on the Denniston plateau to protect the area's biodiversity of flora and fauna from open-cast mining.
While Bathurst has agreed to investigate the use of the aerial systems, instead of a proposed above-ground slurry pipeline, it is keeping its resource consents for the pipeline as its back-up plan.
Forest and Bird top of the South Island field officer Debs Martin said the RMA was about managing developments while ensuring sustainability for future generations.
"It [the consent challenge hearing] is the place where those discussions on the contribution to climate change need to be heard before a project is given the green light to proceed," Ms Martin said in a statement.
Bathurst's proposed aerial skip system, similar to that used by state-owned enterprise Solid Energy on the adjacent Stockton plateau, was cheaper to build but with slightly higher operating costs than the continuous conveyor belt system, Bathurst said in its market update earlier this month.
The flat belt conveyor, with corrugated sides, would be strung between towers spaced at 1.5km intervals and continuously convey coal 25km to a stockpile.
While Bathurst said an investment decision was "pending" on aerial options, it could take up to 24 months before either aerial system was ready and it would use trucks in the meantime to move about 500,000 tonnes of coal from the Escarpment area toward the stockpile nearer Westport.
Last month a local residents' association dropped its consent challenges, following mediation and revision of Bathurst's coal transportation plan, which revealed the aerial options as opposed to the pipeline.
However, a date is still to be set in the Environment Court, where Forest and Bird and the West Coast Environmental Network Inc will challenge the consents granted to Bathurst last year.
