Early last month, the Perth-based explorer said it had completed a promising 15-hole drilling campaign at the site which discovered a 44m-thick intersection and established a target of 1-2 billion tonnes of brown coal.

Further progress, however, is reportedly threatened to be slowed by an approval process which could take up to three years.

Victorian newspaper Melton Weekly quoted Department of Primary Industries earth resources director Chris Brooks when he spoke last Thursday at a five-hour information session in Bacchus Marsh.

“It’s a very detailed and rigorous process – there’s plenty of procedures to go through,” he told the assembly of more than 30 community members.

“They will need to get landowner permission, council approval, engage with the community.”

Drilling was interrupted in February when 20 anti-coal protestors walked onto the tenement.

Earlier this year, community concerns prompted Victorian Premier Ted Baillieu to assure residents that the proposed mine was still in its early stages and that no mining licence for the project had been granted.

Community unrest about the project has been coupled with misinformation as Brooks noted some people in attendance at the meeting didn’t recognise the difference between an exploration licence and a mining licence.

In July, the Melton Weekly reported that a local environmental group requested information from the DPI before the Mantle Mining licence approval was given but were simply delivered a printout of a page from the explorer’s website.

“It was a total waste of time for them to print off the information and send it to me and for us to put in a request,” group member Deb Porter was quoted as saying.

“We were never consulted [about the exploration licence]. Consultation is about having an opportunity to make a change to the outcome, we didn’t get that opportunity.”