Food bowl or big hole on YP?

The company obtained final approvals from state government last month and has all the required licences to go ahead.

But members of the YP Landowners Group say Rex is still waiting on some approvals.

Chairman Stephen Lodge said that despite the company's claim that it had now received all the necessary state and federal approvals to develop the project - as claimed in Rex's release to the Australian Stock Exchange in mid-September - it still faced some hurdles.

"Even leaving aside the challenges the company faces in obtaining the necessary start-up funding, there are a number of hurdles Rex must still jump," he said.

"At this stage, it is still trying to acquire five farms, with two landowners now before the Environment, Resources and Development Court for refusing to sign waivers sought by the company.

"As far as we understand they can't go ahead until the land is acquired, including for their slurry pipelines. They're short by a long run."

But Mr Lodge said the biggest issue for his group was that the smaller start-up now favoured by Rex was not documented in the original mining lease proposal.

"How can the government allow approval of the original mining lease proposal to stand?" he said.

"Rex's change in direction will inevitably involve major alteration to the project."

He said the announcement made by Rex about a new feasibility study looking into a "smaller"-scale start-up'' would potentially introduce a lot of other changes to the project.

Descriptions used by the company about "alternative design scenarios covering mining method, haulage, processing and shipping" suggested substantial changes to the proposal.

"What counts as a major change?" Mr Lodge said.

"The community should be really concerned they don't know what Rex and the government are doing with the project. The only thing that hasn't changed is the rehabilitation of the mine, which is not enough."

* Full report in Stock Journal, October 23, 2014 issue.