Whitehaven wins court bid for coal mine Whitehaven Coal says it will start building its controversial Maules Creek coal mine within weeks after an environmental group failed to convince a court to block the project. The $767 million proposed mine has been targeted by anti-coal activists including from Greenpeace, with some arrested this week after blocking access to workers. Whitehaven released a statement saying it welcomed Friday's Federal Court judgment that disagreed with the bid to find that federal Environment Minister Tony Burke had improperly approved the mine at the start of the year. Its shares had shot up 5.75 cents, or 3.2 per cent, to $1.8625 at 1545 AEDT following the news. The Northern Inland Council for the Environment challenged the validity of the project under the Federal Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act. Opponents of the project, in north-west NSW, say it will destroy endangered woodland and animal habitats in the Leader State Forest, draw down aquifers used by local farmers and spread coal dust. Whitehaven chief executive Paul Flynn said Maules Creek had been the subject of rigorous scrutiny and had passed the highest contemporary environmental standards for coal mining projects in NSW and Australia. Construction of the mine would begin early next month, with opponents failing in an earlier separate legal bid to stop that work. The project is crucial to Whitehaven's expansion plans, with the delays and weak coal market contributing to its $82.2 million loss in 2012-13. "Whitehaven is getting on with the job of building Maules Creek, which will be one of the most significant pieces of economic infrastructure ever delivered in regional NSW, generating over 340 direct construction jobs and a further 470 permanent positions when the mine is operating," Mr Flynn said. The Northern Inland Council for the Environment's spokesman Phil Spark said it was considering appealing the decision. He also warned of continuing protest action at the site of the project. "In our case, the law has not even been strong enough to protect a nationally endangered forest and important koala habitat from being bulldozed for two enormous open-cut coal mines," he said. This disappointing decision today will trigger even greater community opposition to the Maules Creek coal mine, and we expect to see more and more people visiting the forest to take direct action against such an environmentally disastrous mining project. The Court also approved the neighbouring Boggabri coal mine.