More litigation has been lodged against specialist hard-coking coal mine developer Bathurst Resources, with the Royal Forest and Bird Protection Society lodging an appeal on a point of law, stemming from an interim decision recently released by the Environment Court.
Bathurst has been embroiled in repeated legal challenges and appeals through the Environment Court, High Court and Court of Appeal, delaying by a year the full-scale start to operations in and around the Denniston Plateau, above Westport.
Late last year, Forest and Bird and the West Coast Environment Network challenged more than 20 consents granted to Bathurst by West Coast councils about 18 months ago, with the full decision yet to be released by the Environment Court.
Bathurst wants to annually mine 4 million tonnes of coal, from a estimated 94 million-tonne resource. Environmentalists argue strip mining would destroy the plateau's unique and diverse ecology.
Last week, Bathurst said that subject to the full Environment Court decision, it could be commercially mining the Denniston Plateau by the end of the year.
However, late on Friday, Forest and Bird lodged an appeal in the High Court over the Environment Court interim decision released in late-March on the consents challenges, which said that consents were ''likely'' to be granted, subject to more work on consent conditions.
Forest and Bird had vowed to make the Bathurst case its main legal focus during 2012, while Bathurst has since decried the repetitive legal challenges as costly and time-consuming.
A first appeal last year was mediated and withdrawn. Then, Bathurst won a second appeal in the Environment Court, which ruled that climate change effects were irrelevant in a challenge against resource consents.
That decision was subsequently affirmed by the High Court but is now subject to an appeal to the Court of Appeal. The third appeal was heard by the Environment Court over six weeks last year, which is the one awaiting the full decision now.
