SYDNEY, July 12 (Reuters) - Australia's New South Wales state agreed to buy back half of a coal mining exploration licence from China Shenhua Energy Co Ltd 601088.SS , which had covered agricultural land in the state's interior, for A$262 million ($200 million).
"Under this government there will be no more exploration and no mining on the fertile black-soil plains of the Liverpool Plains," the state's minister for resources, Don Harwin, told reporters in Sydney.
"The ridges are areas where exploration can continue but the fertile black soil of the Liverpool Plains will be protected from mining as a result of us buying back the exploration licence today."
The buyback accounts for 51.4 percent of the exploration licence for Shenhua's A$1 billion Watermark thermal and semi-soft coking coal project, mostly covering flatlands 400 kms (250 miles) northwest of Sydney suitable for grazing and cropping.
The state already bought back an exploration licence in the area from BHP Billiton BHP.AX BLT.L for A$220 million in 2016. originally bought the licence to develop the mine in 2008, but development was delayed following lengthy assessments and modifications to plans in response to concerns raised by farmers.
China Shenhua Energy Co Ltd did not immediately respond to an emailed request for comment and an Australian spokeswoman for the Shenhua Watermark Coal project declined to immediately comment.
($1 = 1.3096 Australian dollars)