NuCoal has set off on a legal endeavour today, accusing the Independent Commission Against Corruption of unjustly cancelling an exploration license and failing to complete its investigations.

The allegations were raised after the ICAC cancelled all permits related to the corrupt activities of former mining minister Ian Macdonald who, along with a number of shonky associates, issued tenements throughout the state.

Those included exploration rights on what became NuCoal’s Doyles Creek operations and Cascade Coal’s Mt Penny and Glendon Brook sites.

The companies have been forced to give up all exploration data to the State Government and hand back their permits for the land, with zero compensation.

But NuCoal says it will continue fighting, claiming the ICAC process did not take into account NuCoal’s claim that it had no knowledge of the conditions under which its permits were awarded.

“Accordingly, NuCoal believes ICAC failed to perform its statutory duty, did not act in accordance with the law and committed jurisdictional error,” the company said in a statement to the Australian Stock Exchange.

In previous reports NuCoal said it had been deprived of close to half a billion dollars by losing the license.

“It is unacceptable that a Government considers that it has the right to take – with no compensation – the results of all the detailed exploration results NuCoal paid for,” chair Gordon Galt says.

“There has been no consultation at all in regard to this matter.

“As a result of this decision, the reputation of NSW is further damaged and significant questions of sovereign risk in regards to investment in the resources industry under this Government have been further confirmed.”