Green lobby seeks coal mine ban for Cape

Powerful green lobby group The Wilderness Society will pressure Labor and the LNP to rule out coal mining in Cape York ahead of the next Queensland state election.

The environmental group expressed alarm on Wednesday at the proliferation of applications for coal mining exploration on land surrounding one of Queensland's largest national parks, Rinyirru, in Cape York.

Sixteen applications, many of them bordering Rinyirru (formerly Lakefield) have been lodged with the state government in recent months.

Four such permits were previously granted for the area, including two to mining billionaire Clive Palmer's Waratah Coal.

Wilderness Society campaigner Gavan McFadzean said any coal mining operations in the region could undermine the Queensland and federal governments' efforts to have Cape York declared a World Heritage Area.

The group was concerned about the sudden burst of interest in the region's resources and would pressure Queensland Premier Anna Bligh and Liberal National Party Leader Campbell Newman to commit to banning coal mining in Cape York before the next election, due in March 2012.

"We would like to see Anna Bligh and Campbell Newman rule out coal mining on Cape York in the lead-up to the next campaign," he told AAP.

The Queensland government says no decision has been made on whether to grant the most recent permits.

It says very few exploration permits, about half of one per cent, ever proceed to a commercial mining project.

Mines Minister Stirling Hinchliffe said the Queensland government had some of the toughest environmental regulations in the world.

"Those permit holders have got a long, long road ahead of them and they know it," he said.

The Wilderness Society is the chief proponent of the Queensland government's Wild Rivers legislation, which has so far been applied to four Cape York basins, resulting in the abandonment of a bauxite mine project last year.