Member log in  Environmentalists asked to drop challenge and
save jobs  BUSINESSDESK: Economic Development Minister Steven
Joyce has called on the NZ Royal Forest and Bird Protection
Society and West Coast environmentalists to drop their
objections to Bathurst Resources' Escarpment Mine project,
saying it will create new jobs on the West Coast.  "If we are
serious about jobs and providing incomes on the West Coast then
objectors should stop getting in the way of this immediate
opportunity to create those jobs," Mr Joyce says.  Bathurst
managing director Hamish Bohannan says his company is optimistic
it will be mining coking coal on the Denniston Plateau above
Westport by July next year, assuming it prevails in appeals
against its resource consents.  The hearing is due to start on
October 29 and run through until mid-December, with both Forest
& Bird and the West Coast Environmental Network challenging the
mining resource consents for the Escarpment open-cut mine.  "The
Escarpment mine is an open-cast mining p