Macdonald, who is the subject of an Independent Commission Against Corruption hearing over his granting of an exploration lease for the Doyles Creek project to union ally John Maitland, reportedly gave the project the green light despite a ruling by the NSW Court of Appeal that the lease encroached on one held by Xstrata Coal.

The Mining Amendment (Improvements on Land) Bill 2008 was passed in 2008 to restore certainty to existing mining titles in place before the Court of Appeal's decision, according to Macdonald.

A year after Macdonald made his decision, Felix was sold to Chinese giant Yanzhou for more than $1 billion – delivering a tidy profit to its principals, Travers Duncan and Brian Flannery, who had held the Moolarben tenements for 30 years.

Moolarben is now fully owned by Yancoal Australia.

Flannery reportedly said the government's action had “restored clarity and certainty to mining leases that had been placed at risk of unnecessary and costly litigation by the recent Court of Appeal decision”

Senior executive at Glencore Xstrata Peter Coates reportedly told the Sydney Morning Herald that the “speed of the law change was very unusual”

The Moolarben decision throws further light on a pattern of approvals for mining projects by Macdonald that were made hastily or without due process.

No other coal mining companies were invited to tender for the Doyles Creek project, purportedly because the proponents of the project included a training mine with its proposal.