Adani gives final investment nod for Carmichael mines project

The Dollar Business Bureau

The Indian conglomerate Adani Enterprises Ltd on Tuesday gave final investment nod for the Carmichael coal mines and railway projects in Australia’s Queensland, shifting its focus to raise funds for the project.

“The project has Final Investment Decision approval, which marks the official start of one of the largest single infrastructure and job-creating developments in Australia's recent history,” Gautam Adani, Chairman, Adani Enterprises said in a statement.

Adani hopes to secure a $670 million (A$900-million) loan from the government.

The company has said that the estimated initial cost of the project is $4 billion and it would generate billions of dollars in taxes and royalties and create around 10,000 direct and indirect jobs. The coal from the mine will be shipped to India to help in bringing electricity to the country’s rural regions.

The controversial coal mine project, one of the largest in the world, is situated in the remote Galilee Basin, spread across in an area of 247,000 sq km in the central outback.  The project involves dredging of 1.1 million cubic metres of spoil close to the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park that would be disposed off on land later. The project got the approval for water licence from the state government of Queensland in April.

The railway line of 400-kilometre would be laid out to link the Carmichael coal mine in Galilee Basin of Queensland to the coal port of Abbot Point.

On May 4, Adani signed a landmark deal of $74 million with Australia’s steel major Arrium for buying steel for the railway line.

In December last year, the company had applied for a loan for building the rail line via North Australian Infrastructure Facility (NAIF) that was established to attract investments from the private sector in the region, the statement said.

The Carmichael project, being in a controversy for long, has been hit by delays and faced opposition from various environmental groups and indigenous community members.