PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Queensland coal miner Bravus Mining and Resources on Friday said that the Environmental Protection Order issued by the state government was not as a result of damage done to the Doongmabulla springs, or to underground water at the much-maligned Carmichael mine.

Bravus, which is the Australian arm of Indian major Adani, said in a statement that the order related to potential future underground mining at the Carmichael mine, which the company had already publicly committed to remodelling to ensure it continued to comply with its approvals.

The order was issued after Bravus submitted an updated groundwater model for the area of the Carmichael mine and its surrounds to the Queensland government as per the requirements of the Groundwater Management and Monitoring Plan, one of the suite of state or Commonwealth regulatory documents that form the operation’s rigorous environmental approvals.

“No breach of our environmental authority or any environmental harm has occurred and day-to-day mining operations at Carmichael in central Queensland continue as normal. The order also has no bearing on our future open-cut mining operations, which the world’s best groundwater science has proven will not harm the Doongmabulla springs,” the company said in a statement.

Bravus COO Mick Crowe said the mine had some of the strictest environmental conditions of any resources project in Australian history.

“As part of those conditions we have been measuring groundwater levels in and around the mining area for the last five years and have now submitted that information to the Queensland government.

“The work we’ve done shows that we are not dropping the level of the water in the Doongmabulla springs complex with any of the open-cut surface mining we are undertaking now. The expert modelling also demonstrates that future open-cut surface mining will not cause water levels in the springs, the nearest of which is about 11 km away from our mining activities, to drop.

“While we are not doing any underground mining now, the new model does indicate we have additional work to do on our future underground mining plans to ensure they do not cause water levels in the springs to fall by more than 20 cm after mining occurs, which is one of our regulatory conditions,” said Crowe.

“Prior to the issue of this order we had already proactively and publicly committed to not mining underground before doing the necessary scientific and modelling work to ensure we continue to comply with our approvals.”

Crowe said on Friday that Bravus would review the conditions of the order, and was considering its options.