Waratah chief executive Peter Lynch told the conference about the commercial opportunities the $A5.3 billion coal project could bring to the state.

The project includes a 25 million tonne a year coal mine, rail and port facilities, domestic power generation and underground coal gasification.

Last month Federal Environment Minister Peter Garrett blocked Waratah’s rail and port plans under environmental concerns.

The environment minister rejected the Queensland rail and port proposal under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 and encouraged Waratah to look at other options.

Garrett’s calls were backed by Queensland’s Bligh government.

Earlier this month the ambitious project sparked the interest of private company Mineralogy, which made a $C38.9 million ($A47 million) hostile bid for majority ownership of Canadian-listed Waratah.

Waratah has formed a special committee to review the bid and continued to advise shareholders Wednesday to take no action.