With coal at $60 a tonne and upfront costs of $1.3bn, Shenhua may as well buy a secondhand mine in the Hunter Valley, says minister in a swipe at huge projects

Barnaby Joyce says the business case for big new coalmines “no longer stacks up” given the low price and slowing global demand for the fuel.

The agriculture minister’s comments were directed at the $1.2bn Shenhua Watermark coalmine planned for the fertile Liverpool Plains in his New South Wales electorate, but he conceded the financial argument applied in principle to all new coalmines.

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Source: Guardian Environment