(The following statement is beneath a photograph of Cougar's Kingaroy site.)
KEEPING ON: Cougar Energy's Kingaroy underground coal gasification site may have been shut down by the Queensland Government in July 2010 but the company remains optimistic it may re-open the project once the court process is complete.
(Now the news item)
DESPITE being ordered to close their Underground Coal Gasification pilot plant at Kingaroy, Cougar Energy is optimistic about re-opening the failed project.
Earlier this week the company announced it intended to place their other coal assets at Mackenzie and Wandoan on the market for divestment.
Cougar Energy corporate finance and investor relations general manager Brad Glynne said the move was part of the company's strategy to "rapidly expand" its application of UCG technology across suitable coal reserves in Asian countries.
But he said due to the ongoing court case the Kingaroy site would not be put on the market.
"We have spent a lot of money on the UCG project at Kingaroy and we would like it to be successful," Mr Glynne said.
"We do hope to re-open the site once we have been through the court process if we are successful."
But Kingaroy Concerned Citizens Group spokesperson John Dalton said he would "do everything in my power to ensure the site is never re-opened".
He said the group would be "glad" to see the end of Cougar Energy in Queensland and the land "returned to its rightful purpose of growing food".
"We are asking the State Government to ensure the site is immediately dismantled and the site rehabilitated so the land, classed as Strategic Cropping Land, can be returned to its rightful purpose of growing food," Mr Dalton said.
"The current ploy used by the company to say the site is mothballed will obviously not be accepted under any circumstances by the community.
The Kingaroy group has always been opposed to the process of UCG and the siting of the experimental plant.
Cheers
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