The Environment Court has granted resource consents for Australian mining company Bathurst Resources to develop a new coal mine on the West Coast of the South Island.
The mine will be an open cast mine near Westport and is intended to create 225 direct jobs.
Its success in the Environment Court follows a series of appeals to the High Court, mainly on points of law by environmentalists opposed to the development.
These findings have been taken into account at a hearing on the substantive application before the Environment Court. That court has still opted to go ahead and approve the mine. The latest decision can be appealed to the High Court, but only on points of law.
The Government has welcomed the decision on Thursday, saying the mine will inject $85 million a year into the West Coast economy and Bathurst Resources will pay $30 million a year in royalties and taxes.
In August this year, Bathurst won a conditional go-ahead from the Environment Court, and hopes to be operating in June 2014. Chief executive Hamish Bohannan is thrilled at developments, but says there are still issues to be sorted.
"We are now getting all our operating plans stamped and signed by the councils. There are 27 of them covering things such as stock pile management, waste management, lizard management, kiwi management ... These plans are pretty thorough, we believe they're world class. These are plans that need to be formally approved."
Mr Bohannan says he does not expect any problems with these.
Forest and Bird, which long opposed the mine, says it will study the case before deciding whether an appeal will be made.
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