Malabar chairman Wayne Seabrook said the certificate had been issued in accordance with the process and timetable established by the NSW government.

“We are comfortable with the conditions of the certificate and look forward to preparing our development application for the Spur Hill underground coking coal project,” he said.

The certificate notes “that in general terms, the panel believes that the likely impacts on [biophysical strategic agricultural land] and [critical industry clusters] within the project area should be tolerable and manageable”

The certificate is conditional and specifies certain recommendations.

It allows the project to proceed to the development application stage on the proviso that the conditions are addressed.

The project, which is located in the Upper Hunter Valley coal corridor in NSW, has the potential to become a major underground coking coal mine producing up to 8 million tonnes per annum of run-of-mine coal for more than 20 years.

The target seams are likely to produce soft coking coal, semi-soft coking coal, pulverised coal injection coal and export thermal coal.

An environmental impact statement and development application for the project is being prepared.