NSW Member for Goulburn Pru Goward has reassured anxious residents from the village of Sutton Forest that Cockatoo Coal needs approval from the Foreign Investment Review Board after a consortium made up of Cockatoo and Korean steel interests purchased Anglo American’s NSW and Queensland coal exploration assets for $A580 million.

On completion of all arrangements, Cockatoo’s share of the assets acquired will be 51% of each of Collingwood and Taroom and 30% of Sutton Forest, with the remainder being owned by Korean steel producer Posco.

Goward will tell federal Treasurer Wayne Swan the deal should be refused because it may result in a foreign investment in an Australian company in excess of 15% of its capital.

“When you put all the holdings together, it's well in excess of the 15 per cent that our foreign investment guidelines allow for the ownership of a resources company," she told the ABC.

“Without the approval of the Australian government and the Foreign Investment Review Board this cannot go ahead because this cannot be sold to the Koreans.”

Goward believes the local community would get no benefits except “a few jobs.”

“We won't even get the full value of the mining royalties because we won't be getting them at the current world price for coal, we'll be getting them at the price that Posco sets for itself because they are buying it for their own steelmaking operations,” she said.

“So this is not a great deal.”