Federal Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek has given the green light for developer Bowen Coking Coal to build a new mine in central Queensland that will produce about 500,000 tonnes of metallurgical coal per year for five years.
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The Isaac River coal mine is the first coal mine approved under the Albanese government, after Ms Plibersek on Thursday signed the go-ahead.
The proposed mine is located inland from McKay in the Bowen Basin to extract coal for steelmaking, and will operate in an active mining precinct adjacent to two existing mines.
Bowen Coking Coal already operates three pits in Queensland, employing 700 people.
However, the federal government did not receive any submissions on the Isaac River project - including from environment groups - during the formal public consultation period.
"The Albanese government has to make decisions in accordance with the facts and the national environment law - that's what happens on every project, and that's what's happened here," a federal government spokesperson said.
"The government will continue to consider each project on a case-by-case basis, under the law."
The approval comes after Ms Plibersek had blocked an application from the Clive Palmer-backed Central Queensland Coal Project to build two open-cut mines less than 10km from the Great Barrier Reef.
This decision made her the first Australian environment minster to ever reject a coal project.
Ms Plibersek had also struck-out two other coal proposals in Queensland earlier this month after the developers failed to submit requested documents around environmental impacts.
The latest approval comes as Ms Plibersek is considering further advancements on three other coal projects, including two in NSW and extending another in Queensland.
The federal government is overhauling the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act, which includes establishing a new Environmental Protection Agency.
The Climate Council labelled the Isaac River mine decision as "reckless" and "out of line with the science", calling on the federal government to pause any new fossil fuel projects until a new and stronger EPA is formed.
Climate Council head of advocacy Jennifer Rayner said the decision was "in entirely the wrong direction" to "protect Australians from the worsening effects of dangerous climate change".
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"The Environment Minister has a responsibility to scrutinise all risks of harm to the environment, and it is irresponsible that she has refused to look at the immense and indisputable climate harm that all new coal and gas projects pose," Dr Rayner said.
Bowen Coking Coal executive chairman Nick Jorss said the company had accepted the environmental conditions attached to the approval.
"As the Bowen Basin's newest independent coal producer, we're here to meet the growing demand for energy and steelmaking coal," he said.
