The rights of NuCoal under the Mining Act based on EL 7270 [Doyles Creek] continue – and it will continue to assert those rights and discharge its related obligations, he said as a trading halt was lifted from the company’s shares.
The first of three proposed reports on Operation Acacia was provided by the Independent Commission Against Corruption to NSW Parliament and made public on Friday.
It found that former mining minister Ian Macdonald had corruptly awarded the initial exploration licence to a company owned by union stalwart John Maitland.
ICAC has decided to issue two further reports on recommended action to the NSW government by the end of 2013, with respect to EL 7270 and any other issues arising from the hearing.
“We urge the premier and the government to fully consult with NuCoal to ensure the fairness and appropriateness of any contemplated actions with regard to EL 7270 for NuCoal, its 3400 shareholders and the people of NSW,” Galt said.
“Ultimately, we believe NuCoal should be allowed to pursue the development of the Doyles Creek Project based on the resource that NuCoal’s shareholders have discovered, and thereby to realise our potential to become a major supplier to export markets and to the NSW power industry to the benefit of our shareholders, the state of NSW and Australia.”
Since listing on the ASX in February 2010, NuCoal has spent more than $40 million on exploration activities, development studies and land acquisitions for the Doyles Creek project.
“The events on which the ICAC findings are made occurred prior to December 2008, which is clearly well before NuCoal acquired the shares in Doyles Creek Mining in good faith in February 2010,” Galt said.
“NuCoal was not investigated by ICAC, and there is no suggestion that NuCoal has done anything wrong or is implicated in these findings.
“NuCoal remains an innocent party in this affair and shareholders have continued to suffer considerable loss as a direct result of the inquiry.”
ICAC was responding to allegations to the corruption watchdog that a proposed mine training school project at Doyles Creek was a pretext to gain approval by Macdonald.
The training school was proposed by former Construction, Forestry Mining and Energy union leader Maitland, who made a windfall profit of $15 million when the project was sold to NuCoal in February 2010.
Meanwhile, the Greens have called for the Doyles Creek exploration licence to be cancelled and assets frozen as “proceeds of crime”, its spokesman on mining Jeremy Buckingham said.
