The NSW mine, a centre piece of the company’s production profile, was challenged by environmentalists who said that ministerial approval should be overturned because the mine would endanger a species of plant and that its proposed offsets were insufficient.

Flynn told the ABC that the company was confident that the project would go ahead, having achieved all of its state and federal government approvals.

“We have had interactions with the shadow minister and his department and to ensure that they are briefed in terms of the status of our project, so we anticipate the election result will play out the way it is and so we've had interactions with both the existing minister and shadow,” he said.

“He didn't give us any undertakings, he was understanding of our frustration with the status quo and so that was welcome.

“We were keen to hear that he understood, you know, the delays and the frustrations of not just us, but others in the industry have felt also and so, you know, that was welcome.”

Flynn said there has been a precedent for this type of challenge in Tasmania with the Tarkine case, where the minister's approval was rejected and so the minister has gone back and reapproved that project within a couple of weeks of having been overturned.

The true value of Maules Creek and the company’s Narrabri underground project were fully reflected in the company’s share price, he said.

“Maules Creek is a great mine and it complements another great mine we're in the process of ramping up, our Narrabri underground mine, which again is a tier one asset,” he said.

“So as to whether or not that makes us susceptible to that sort of thing, I suppose any company, you know, in the resources sector, is probably trading at a level below the underlying value of the assets and that would obviously give rise to that sort of question.”