Adani's controversial Queensland coal mine has been dealt another blow after the state government rejected its plan to protect an endangered bird.
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Construction on the project has been held up after the Labor government rejected the company's plan to manage the black-throated finch.
Officials from Queensland's environment department met with Adani representatives on Thursday, telling the company to go back to the drawing board.
A department spokeswoman told The Australian the plan cannot be approved in its current form because "it fails to meet Adani's environmental authority".
The department said Adani could submit a new or revised plan, but the timing of that is up to the company.
Adani has accused the state Labor government of constantly shifting the goal posts for its Galilee Basin project.
The department has provided a list of changes to the Indian miner, which also accused the department of overreaching.
One example was an insistence the company work with individuals with post-doctoral qualifications.
"We are now feverishly working through their new requests," Adani Mining chief executive Lucas Dow said.
"Although we believe the current version of the black-throated finch management plan already meets our project conditions, we are not going to be pig-headed about it and we will review the feedback."
The company said it wasn't going anywhere, with its proposed thermal coal mine becoming a major issue in the federal election campaign.
A convoy of anti-Adani protesters led by former Greens leader Bob Brown has travelled from Hobart to Clermont in central Queensland in recent weeks to campaign against the project.
The convoy has been marked by heated clashes between pro- and anti-mine protesters in Queensland's coal country, and will on Thursday reach its final destination in Canberra.
The Morrison government has accused state and federal Labor of frustrating the project to appeal to green-minded voters in urban electorates.
Both state and federal Labor have said the mine must stack up economically and environmentally.
Federal Resources Minister Matt Canavan accused Labor of siding with the Greens.
"Other mines have been approved by the state Labor government which involves the black-throated finch without this palaver. The reason they're singling out this mine is because the Greens have asked them to do it," he told ABC radio.
Greens leader Richard Di Natale said the Adani mine wasn't about politics, but climate change and treasures like the Great Barrier Reef.
He said the Coalition and federal Labor were not serious about moving away from coal and gas.
The state's Liberal National Party has slammed the decision as blatant political interference.
"We've got an unemployment rate in Townsville which is through the roof ... and here we are, yet again, staring down the barrel of several more months of delays," the party's natural resources spokesman Dale Last said.
Australian Associated Press
