A broad range of findings have been levelled against former New South Wales Resources Minister Ian Macdonald, accusing him of thwarting proper process to do favours for his friends in the mining industry.

The Independent Commission Against Corruption released its findings late last Friday, recommending criminal charges for the hugely corrupt business practices of Mr Macdonald, former union official John Maitland and businesspeople Craig Ransley, Andrew Poole and Michael Chester. The case has been passed on to the state's Director of Public Prosecutions.

The report tallied the findings of NSW police Operation Acacia, which sought to root out corruption in high-profile NSW public offices. The investigation of Ian Macdonald has been the fourth such probe into top-level NSW ministers’ behaviour.

The hearings were told Mr Macdonald “gifted” the Doyles Creek mining licence to his friend Mr Maitland, while serving as resources minister in 2008. ICAC found Macdonald granted the license knowing full-well the application was defective.

“The Commission finds that he did so to benefit Mr Maitland, a man with who he had a close professional relationship, to whom he was closely politically aligned, to whom he was indebted and who was a 'mate',” the ICAC report says.

The Commission criticised Macdonald’s participation or lack thereof in the questioning process, saying “generally, Mr Macdonald attempted to avoid answering difficult questions... not answering questions, by giving long, discursive and irrelevant answers, by being argumentative and by saying that he could not remember... he also appeared to be making up evidence as he went along.”

Mr Macdonald, Mr Maitland and Mr Ransley have all issued statements refuting the ICAC's corruption findings.

The findings have sparked fresh calls for the State Government to immediately cancel the exploration licence and freeze profits from the mine.

“Section 125 says that if false and misleading information is provided in that application process that licence can be cancelled. That is clearly the case now,” says Greens Upper House MP Jeremy Buckingham, “this is the proceeds of crime. The Premier has the power, he should tear up the licence and protect the community who have fought this mine from day one.”

The ICAC will continue its investigations into Mr Macdonald’s conduct in relation to other projects and the behaviour of some former CFMEU officials. The Union has praised ICAC’s efforts to combat what it calls “a half-baked get-rich-quick scheme that should never have been given the time of day by the NSW Government.”