Coal company urges caution on mining laws

Mining company Cascade Coal has written an open letter to the NSW parliament urging it not to cancel its exploration licence for its proposed Mount Penny and Glendon Brook mines.

Warning parliamentarians that a decision to overturn the licences may open the state to substantial damage claims, the company has asked why shareholders should be punished.

The Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) found the "granting of the authorities to Mt Penny and Glendon Brook were so tainted by corruption that those authorities should be cancelled".

Cascade Coal says it fears the parliament will rush to vote after bills to remove the licences were introduced in parliament on Thursday.

"This action is extraordinary and is an unreasonable position for any government to adopt particularly when the core recommendations of ICAC, which form the basis of the proposed legislation, are being challenged in the Supreme Court," the letter said.

Cascade Coal says there was no adverse findings by ICAC against the company or its shareholders in relation to the granting of the exploration licences.

Mining firm NuCoal Resources, which bought the Doyles Creek licence after it was corruptly granted to entrepreneurs including former unions boss John Maitland, has previously described itself as an "innocent party" and threatened to mount a constitutional challenge to protect its interests.

NSW frontbencher Duncan Gay introduced the Mining Amendment (ICAC Operations Jasper and Acacia) Bill 2014 in the state's upper house on Thursday morning.

The bill's introduction comes two months after ICAC recommended that exploration licences for Mount Penny, Doyles Creek and Glendon Brook be cancelled.

The recommendation came months after it handed down corruption findings against former Labor MP Eddie Obeid, former mining minister Ian Macdonald and Maitland.

Mr Gay has confirmed the laws will indemnify the state against any lawsuits arising from the cancellation of the suspect licences, but would not protect anyone who has "engaged in deliberate wrongdoing".

"The decision has been made that no compensation will be payable in respect of the cancellation," Mr Gay said.

"The government has no immediate plans to re-release the relevant land ... The bill is also about putting the state in as near as possible to the same position as it would have been had this corruption never occurred."