Go LenSyndey morning heraldCougar managing director Len Walker...

Go Len

Syndey morning herald

Cougar managing director Len Walker told BusinessDay he expected to detail the inaccuracies next week as he fights to continue developing underground coal gasification, a technology that produces gas from coal seams, from where it is transported to the surface and used for power generation.

''We submitted a report, which was actually about 10 documents, 400-odd pages, on the groundwater issues and risk management,'' he said.

''The government has chosen not to give us any response to those reports at all. The only technical material that we have to go on in relation to why they have taken the action they have is the scientific panel report. It makes very little reference to any of the work that we have done.''

Mr Walker said Cougar was pursuing several project opportunities, including in China, a country that he said was one of many now overtaking Australia's first-mover advantage in underground coal gasification.

''There are projects being done in South Africa, New Zealand, in Canada, in the States, in India and in Pakistan ? but the [Queensland] government has taken the foot off the accelerator and put it firmly on the brakes,'' he said.

Mr Walker said Cougar was ''still very much alive'' and that it would ''continue to fight until the end''.