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In its recent assessment, PAC said the project was potentially approvable and it made 25 recommendations to help Watermark get over the line at the next attempt.
According to the Namoi Valley Independent, Breeza landholders are furious.
Breeza Station owner Andrew Pursehouse reportedly warned that locals would start the “biggest ever” protests in Australian history unless the project were scrapped.
“Farmers are not going to stand for this,” he told the newspaper.
“You’re going to see civil disobedience, the biggest ever in Australia.
“(The PAC was) out of time so what they’ve agreed is the mine can go ahead, subject to the hydrology being done.”
The $850 million Watermark open cut project is targeting up to 10 million tonnes per annum run of mine over 30 years with about 84% of the saleable coal to be of a metallurgical grade.
PAC wants the coal company to exclude some land of the designated mining areas of the project.
