Queensland miner Stanmore Resources has moved to clarify its plans for The Range coal project after it was issued a lapsed notice under the environmental approvals process.

“The Range is a legacy thermal coal resource from Stanmore’s IPO in 2009, and while it remains in our portfolio of reserves and options, our current focus has been on developing our metallurgical coal assets,” chief executive officer Marcelo Matos said.

He was commenting after the Commonwealth Government declared its proposed action under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act as lapsed.

Mr Matos said the company had made investments since 2009 to define the resource and reserves at The Range and approvals and environmental studies had been progressed.

“Stanmore’s intention is to maintain the asset, including its tenure, and preserve our optionality going forward,” he said.

“We will continue to assess our options for The Range and seek to engage with Queensland and Commonwealth authorities to further progress the project.

“Since our last discussions about the project with the Commonwealth in 2020, we have prioritised approvals and progressed development of our Isaac Downs project which was successfully brought into production in 2021.

“We have also been focused on the continuation of operations and potential incremental expansions at our newly acquired South Walker Creek and Poitrel mines.

“We have a long track record of working collaboratively with all regulatory bodies including the Queensland and Commonwealth governments to address assessed impacts of our operations and agree initiatives to ensure positive, acceptable social and environment outcomes.”

Stanmore stated it was open to resubmitting the Range project to the Commonwealth Government for assessment under the EPBC Act at the appropriate time to progress the project.

Stanmore Resources operates the Isaac Plains Complex, South Walker Creek and Poitrel metallurgical coal mines in the Bowen Basin and is a joint owner of the Millennium and Mavis Downs mines.

Its project pipeline includes the Wards Well, Isaac Plains underground and Isaac Plains South coal projects as well as Belview, Clifford, Lilydale and Mackenzie.