As part of his criticism that the Queensland government was ignoring the Galilee Basin-based China First project advanced by his company Waratah Coal, last week Palmer said GVK had received favourable treatment even though it cut project funding and sacked employees.

GVK did not directly respond to Palmer’s claims but revealed it had hired people as part of a realignment.

“As we finalise all outstanding approvals and advance our project to a position where construction can commence we have aligned our project team to meet the challenges of the next stage of development,” GVK group managing director Paul Mulder told ILN.

“In line with this aim, we have recently made a number of new key executive appointments including a chief of contracts and commercial officer, head of marketing, chief investment officer and a manager of corporate affairs.”

Mulder also welcomed the Newman government’s recently released Galilee Basin development strategy, which included the key platform of discounting the royalties faced by projects in the coal region over an “initial period”.

“From our perspective, the development of the Galilee Basin represents one of the most significant pieces of regional and economic development this state has seen for decades,” Mulder said.

“We commend the Newman government for working to deliver their promise to get the state’s resources industry back on track as one of the four pillars of a strong Queensland economy.”

Palmer said GVK had “deserted the state” in his post-GBDS statement last week but Mulder made it clear this wasn’t the case.

“We remain firmly committed to the development of our Galilee Basin coal assets, with project work progressing in line with project planning requirements,” he said.

“The scale of this project represents one of the largest investments in regional and economic development this state has seen for decades.”

GVK Hancock’s coal projects in the basin include the $A4.2 billion Kevin’s Corner project, which received federal environmental approval at the start of this month, plus its $6 billion Alpha and expansion option Alpha West projects.

While the Alpha project already has regulatory approvals, it recently faced a challenge in the Queensland Land Court and an outcome could still take more than a month.

When combined, GVK’s three projects could create one of the largest coal mining operations in the world, holding total resources of 8 billion tonnes and peak capacity of about 80 million tonnes per annum.

The projects are expected to provide about 7000 jobs during construction and about 20,000 once the mix of open cut and longwall operations start up.

The company was formed after Indian conglomerate GVK acquired a 100% stake in the Kevin’s Corner project in Queensland from Gina Rinehart’s Hancock Prospecting and a 79% stake in the Alpha Coal and Alpha West Coal projects in late 2011.