[2] In 2005, Solid Energy, a state-owned enterprise owned by the New Zealand government, was granted resource consent for the mine after an unsuccessful appeal to the Environment Court.
Solid Energy's Environmental Report 2007 mentioned that the mine was scheduled to start in 2008.
[4] However, in 2010, Solid Energy updated that the mine's development would start that year and anticipated that the first coal would be expected to be taken by late 2011.
[1] In October 2012 Solid Energy announced that work on the mine would be delayed.
[5] On 12 June 2013, The Biodiversity Defence Society filed proceedings with the Environment Court, arguing that Solid Energy no longer holds resource consents for its Cypress Mine, due to the expiry of the allocated time period of the consent.