By STEPHANIE GARDINER

The developers of a NSW goldmine should not have to jump through more planning hoops after a federal decision stalled its opening, Premier Chris Minns says.

Federal Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek has issued an Indigenous heritage protection order rejecting the site of a tailings dam at the McPhillamys Gold Project on the outskirts of Blayney, in the state’s central west.

The Wiradjuri Traditional Owners Central West Aboriginal Corporation asked the minister to protect the headwaters and the springs of the Belubula River as a site central to creation stories.

Gold producer Regis Resources initially said Ms Plibersek’s rejection of a tailings dam site made the entire mine unviable due to the time it would take to get approvals for another waste zone.

But chief executive Jim Beyer has met NSW government ministers and the company will continue to consider its options before pulling the pin.

The decision only affects the dam on the headwaters of the river, Tanya Plibersek says. (Mick Tsikas/AAP)

On Thursday, Ms Plibersek said the company had investigated alternative dam sites and its claims that a new approval process could take up to a decade were “nonsense”.

The decision only affected the dam on the headwaters of the river, she said.

“Once this river is destroyed, it’s destroyed forever,” she told ABC TV on Thursday.

The NSW Independent Planning Commission approved the mine in March 2023, a process that included consultation with the Orange Local Aboriginal Land Council.

Council representatives told the commission it was not “for or against” the mine, but emphasised the importance of protecting Aboriginal culture and heritage should it go ahead.

Premier Chris Minns said the state government accepted some responsibility to ensure Regis did not have to start over after filing its development application in 2019.

Blayney, a village in central western NSW where there are concerns about the future of a gold mine development.

“The planning system in NSW is too complex, too difficult, too long, too many hoops for people to jump through,” Mr Minns told The Daily Telegraph’s Bush Summit in Orange.

“We’ve said to the company, ‘We don’t want you to start at stage one’.

“Our hope is that if an alternative site can be found, some modifications of the development application can get on with it.”

The government wanted to encourage billions of dollars of capital from critical minerals and resources, Mr Minns said.