Greg Hunt urged to scrap Carmichael mine plan after new evidence of impact

Greg Hunt, the federal environment minister, has been urged to revoke his approval of Australia’s largest mine due to newly revealed information about its impact upon groundwater and threatened species.

The Australian Conservation Foundation (ACF) has written to Hunt to ask him to reverse his approval of the $16bn Carmichael mine, which will extract up to 60m tonnes of coal a year from the Galilee Basin region of central Queensland.

ACF said courtroom evidence given by experts contracted to Adani, the Indian mining firm behind Carmichael, showed that the impact of the mine will be “substantially greater” than previously outlined by the company.

Adani is facing two court challenges aimed at stopping the mine. One of the cases, launched by conservation group Coast and Country, saw evidence from Dr Noel Merrick, Adani’s groundwater expert.

According to ACF, Merrick said a water drawdown of around 5cm would cause a number of the nearby Doongmabulla Springs to dry up and its reliant species die off, contrary to information given by Adani to the government.

Meanwhile, Adani “understated” the importance of the mine site to the endangered black-throated finch, ACF said. A flock of more than 400 of the birds have been seen within the mining area – one of just two remaining areas where the species is found.

Evidence given at the court case showed that Adani’s reporting on the black-throated finch was “inadequate”, ACF’s letter states, adding “the black-throated finch experts agreed from the outset that it did not provide sufficient information to adequately asses the impact that Carmichael would have on the site’s black-throated finch population or on the habitat values in a regional context”.

The potential loss of the springs and the flattening of critical black-throated finch habitat are “unacceptable impacts and should have led to a decision not to grant the approval if known at the time the approval was granted”, the letter states, urging Hunt to use his powers to withdraw his original approval.

Hunt approved the Carmichael mine last year, subject to a raft of conditions, including the demand that Adani find 28,000 hectares of suitable habitat to “offset” the loss of the black-throated finches’ homes. In April, the species’ recovery team told Hunt the mine would have “serious detrimental and irreversible consequences” for the finch.

The huge mine, which will cover 455 sq km, will use up to 12.5bn litres of water a year over its 60-year lifespan. The operation will transfer mined coal via a new rail line to an enlarged Abbot Point port, adjacent to the Great Barrier Reef, where it will be shipped overseas.

Kelly O’Shanassy, chief executive of ACF, said the court case “shows that happens when you have independent review of information in environmental impact statements”.

“When third parties are able to identify problems, we get the truth from the experts and find that something was hidden or glossed over. It shows the failure of our national environmental protection laws.”

O’Shanassy said the plight of the black-throated finch was “the canary in the coalmine, so to speak. If we continue to destroy our planet through climate change, we’ll end up having to protect the last habitats for humans. People are already enduring terrible droughts, heatwaves and fires. I’m not sure when governments will wake up to this.”

ACF, which wrote to Hunt two weeks ago, has yet to receive a reply from the minister’s office. A separate legal challenge to his approval of the mine, launched by the Mackay Conservation Group, will start in the federal court next week.

Hunt’s office did not respond to a request to comment on the mine’s approval.

Previously, Hunt has said criticism of the mine’s approval was politically motivated and rejected claims it would harm the Great Barrier Reef or undermine Australia’s action on climate change.

“If you see the site from the air you realise this is the middle of deep outback Australia. It is nowhere near the coast,” he said last year.

“It is lightly vegetated and according to the federal environmental laws, we have still put 36 of the strictest, toughest conditions that have ever been imposed.

“We are about reducing emissions in Australia. That was our task and our target, to achieve our reductions.”