The Australian explorer faces furtherinvestigation from the state’s Department of Environment & HeritageProtection over the alleged breaches at the plant near Chinchilla.

A statement from the department on Friday saidthe charges followed “a detailed nine-month investigation” in relation to thepilot project that is now in a decommissioning phase.

Minister for Environment and Heritage ProtectionAndrew Powell said: “UCG is a very different process to that used to extractcoal seam gas (CSG).