ABSTRACT
Xstrata's proposed Wandoan mine was highly contentious as it would have been double the size of Queenland's largest coal mine and would have been one of the largest mines in the Southern hemisphere. The proposed mining would have required the completion of the 'Southern Missing Link' railroad to connect the mine to the port at Gladstone. The Wandoan case is one of many in which environmental activists pushed for a broader assessment of the 'impact' of coal mining to also include the contribution that burning extracted coal has on climate change and associated environmental harms. The most interesting element of the Wandoan case was the expert evidence put forward about the mine's contribution to the global 'carbon budget' that did not feature in the Court's reasoning. The environmental impact statement (EIS) prepared by the proponents describes the greenhouse gas emissions of the proposed mine over its lifetime.
