The Operation Acacia terms of reference included whether recommendations should be made to the government regarding licenses or leases under the Mining Act 1992 (NSW) over NuCoal’s Doyles Creek project area in the Hunter Valley.

Public hearings by the Independent Commission Against Corruption into the allocation of exploration licence EL 7270 to NuCoal’s wholly owned subsidiary, Doyles Creek Mining, ended on May 17.

“NuCoal is pressing for the complete report to be provided urgently,” the company said.

“NuCoal was legally represented at the public hearing with instructions for counsel provided by a sub-committee of the board comprising NuCoal’s independent directors.

“A member of the sub-committee attended the public hearing on most sitting days.”

ICAC’s commissioner has indicated that there will be a report as to aspects of Operation Acacia submitted to parliament this month, followed by a further report as to the other aspects.

ICAC was responding to allegations to the corruption watchdog that a mine training school project at Doyles Creek was a pretext to gain approval by then minister for resources Ian Macdonald.

The training school was proposed by former Construction Forestry Mining and Energy union leader John Maitland, who made a windfall profit of $15 million when the project was sold to NuCoal in February 2010.

ICAC heard that Macdonald granted the licence to interests associated with Maitland without a competitive tender because of his friendship with the former union leader.

NuCoal managing director Glen Lewis told ILN that the company had fully complied with the conditions of its exploration, which included the development of the Hunter Valley training school.