The Queensland government is set to sign off on the groundwater management plan for the Adani Group’s Carmichael coal mine project on Thursday, the final hurdle for the Indian conglomerate to begin work on the $2-billion project, after fighting environment groups for close to a decade.
The Gautam Adani-led Adani Group entered Australia in 2010 with the purchase of the greenfield Carmichael coal mine in the Galilee Basin in central Queensland, estimated to hold 7.8 billion tonnes of coal, from the Australian firm, Linc Energy, for A$680 million, and the Abbot Point coal terminal near Bowen in the north.
The coal mine will be connected to the Abbot Point port by a 388-km-long rail line, estimated to cost some $3.3 billion, for exporting the coal.
The Black-Throated Finch Management Plan and the Groundwater Dependent Ecosystem Management Plan were holding up the start of construction activities on the mine and rail project.
On May 31, Queensland’s Department of Environment and Science (DES) accepted Adani’s plan to manage the endangered black-throated finch around the Carmichael mine site.
DES has been reviewing the groundwater management plan for more than two years, across 11 versions. In addition, pre-eminent scientific bodies, CSIRO and Geoscience Australia, have also conducted reviews of the groundwater management plan.
Adani’s Australian unit said it can start work on the project the next day after its groundwater management plan is accepted by the Queensland government on Thursday.
“We have been put through the highest level of scrutiny on these plans and overcome every hurdle along the way and these plans have been approved at the Federal level already,” Adani Mining CEO, Lucas Dow, said. “We are determined to see this through for the benefit of Queensland and, in particular, for the people in regional Queensland”.
The proposed Carmichael mine will be constructed in the North Galilee Basin, more than 300 km from the Queensland coastline and approximately 160 km north-west of Clermont in regional Queensland.
The Carmichael mine will be one of 125 coal mines in Australia and in its first stage will produce 10 million tonnes of coal annually. The mine is only slightly larger than existing mines in the Hunter Valley and the Bowen Basin.
The coal will be transported to Abbot Point Port by rail, the same way other Queensland coal mines have done for 30 years.
The Carmichael mine, through mining taxes and royalties, will generate billions of dollars for the government in its first 30 years of operation.