Whitehaven Coal Limited
(ASX:WHC) faces another hurdle to its Maules Creek open cut coal mine in New South Wales, with an environmental activist group launching a Federal Court challenge to the validity of its approval.
It comes two weeks after Whitehaven was given the green light for its project, almost three years after it started the approvals process.
Whitehaven Coal says the Northern Inland Council for the Environment has launched Federal Court proceedings against it and the former Federal Environment Minister Tony Burke over the approval of the project in February.
The group is arguing that the minister committed errors of law in granting the approval.
Whitehaven says it will stick to its construction timeline and that the court could not rule on whether or not the project should have been approved.
Whitehaven booked a net loss of $47 million in the first half of fiscal 2013.
