Former Member for New England Tony Windsor spurred the rumour mill into overdrive yesterday, after hearing a whisper that Shenhua may have asked for its mining exploration licence money back from the state government.
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The former independent sent out a tweet that said: “Very strong rumour Shenhua have met with the NSW Government and requested their money back .... Gov offered fraction of what was requested.”
Mr Windsor told the Namoi Valley Independent he was in Canberra this week when he heard the rumour, but wouldn’t be drawn on who it came from. He said senior journalists in the courtyard in Canberra where also hearing the same whisper.
The Chinese miner paid $300 million for an exploration licence back in 2008 - the most ever paid for such a permit.
It has since spent millions on acquiring land in the Breeza area and is due to pay another $200 million on application of a mining licence which is yet to be submitted.
The “rumour” heard by Mr Windsor however, caused the state government to shut down the talk yesterday, denying any buy backs.
“The NSW government has not sought to buy back Shenhua’s exploration licence or been asked to buy back the exploration by the company,” a spokesperson for the NSW Minister for Resources and Energy said.
“The Shenhua project is currently awaiting final approval of its water modelling from the Commonwealth’s Independent Expert Scientific Committee as committed to by the Commonwealth Environment Minister, Greg Hunt in July 2015.”
The Namoi Valley Independent also contacted Shenhua for comment but was unsuccessful.
Gunnedah mayor Owen Hasler said this morning Shenhua was saying the rumour was “most certainly not true”.
Cr Hasler said he had been advised Shenhua was working on submitting its mining licence renewal this week.
He said Shenhua was looking for “surety going forward as is the community”.
Shenhua has received planning approval from the state government, however it has not yet submitted its mining licence application to the NSW Division of Resources and Energy.
Mr Windsor said it wouldn’t surprise him if the rumour was true and he believed the miner could genuinely be looking for a way out.
“I know February 22nd is a key date. They’ve got to apply for a mining licence before the 22nd and that was the deadline for the next $200 million,” Mr Windsor said.
“That was part of the agreement when they got the licence.”
He said other factors as to why Shenhua may pull the pin which added weight to the rumour was because China’s coal needs were lessening due to the upgrading of other sources of energy; the impacts of the economics of the mine and possibly the fact the Chinese government now plans to impose a three-year moratorium on Chinese coal mine approvals.
NSW Premier Mike Baird has been quoted as saying of the rumour “Not that I’m aware of”.
In July last year, Greens MP Jeremy Buckingham said the NSW government should give Shenhua back its $300 million and ask it to abandon plans to mine coal.
“If Shenhua are paid back the $300 million exploration licence fee and sell the $200 plus million worth of farm land they have bought, they should recover up to $500 million of the $700 million they have spent, allowing the company to protect its reputation and save money,” Mr Buckingham said.
Mr Windsor has also said previously that he believed Shenhua did not know where it was coming to when it paid the $300 million for an exploration licence near Breeza.
He was invited to a meeting with a Chinese Shenhua delegation the day the company handed over the cheque for the licence in October, 2008, and was told by the head of the group that they would be mining in the Hunter Valley and “there’s plenty of mining there and there’s no water issues”.
