An open-cut metallurgical and thermal coal mine expected to emit 583 million tonnes of carbon emissions has been granted environmental approvals by the Queensland government.
The Department of Environment, Science and Innovation (DESI) approved the environmental authority (EA) application for Whitehaven's Winchester South coal mine on Wednesday.
It comes after the Queensland coordinator general recommended the project proceed in November 2023.
"This project was comprehensively assessed through an environmental impact statement managed by the Coordinator-General, who issued an evaluation report in November 2023, which recommended the project proceed subject to the conditions and recommendations in the report," a department spokesperson said.
Whitehaven and five submission makers now have the opportunity to object to the department’s decision and request the project be referred to the Land Court, the department said.
The project must also be approved by federal Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek.
Winchester South has a proposed 30-year life and is expected to mine a combined 17 million tonnes of thermal and metallurgical coal per year.
Environmental lobby group Lock the Gate Alliance said stakeholders received verbal confirmation on Wednesday the mine had been approved.
"The Miles government has just given a NSW coal company with a notoriously long list of environmental offences in its home state permission to trash Central Queensland,” national coordinator Ellen Roberts said.
Steven Miles, in one of his first directives after becoming premier in December, revised Queensland's 2035 emissions targets from 30 per cent to 75 per cent.
The Labor government will seek to legislate those targets in 2024, while keeping a focus on the emissions it's accountable for, he said.
"There will be an element of those mines that we are accountable for, for example, diesel emissions and the fugitive emissions," Mr Miles said when asked about Winchester South on Tuesday.
"But otherwise, the use of those resources will be accounted for in the places where they're used."
Methane levels produced by Winchester South put both the 2035 targets and 2050 net zero targets at risk, the Queensland Conservation Council said.
They said the mine should not have been approved.
"The amount of methane that these mines in the Bowen Basin will spew out will make it incredibly difficult," council director Dave Copeman told AAP.
"This doesn't just put the 2035 target at risk, it puts the net zero target at risk, because we're going to keep on having incredibly powerful greenhouse gas emissions in terms of methane spewing out of this mine for its life and afterwards."
Market Forces coal campaigner Michelle Surowiec said Australian and international banks must focus on transitioning to green steel instead of enabling more dirty coal mining, which was harming the climate.
"Whitehaven is trying to ram ahead with two of the largest greenfield metallurgical coal mines in Australia and taxpayers may be forced to pay for the environmental damage.”
