Adani presses ahead

Miner to fund first stage of contentious project

AFTER years of fighting against activists and claims the Carmichael coal mine would never proceed, Adani is officially pushing ahead with the multibillion-dollar project.

Adani Mining chief executive officer Lucas Dow yesterday revealed the company would fully fund the first stage of the highly contentious mine itself, in a massive coup for Queensland jobs.

“This removes beyond a shadow of a doubt now that this project stacks up environmentally and financially,” he told News Corp Australia.

The decision creates a huge headache for the Palaszczuk Government after Labor was targeted by activists during last year’s election and scuppered a Federal loan for the company to appease the protesters.

With forces within the Government hoping the mine would fail, Adani’s decision risks reigniting internal frictions over the company’s royalties deal.

However, the company’s decision to push ahead could not come at a better time for Queensland. The state now holds the inauspicious mantle of Australia’s unemployment capital and new figures show the value of construction work completed in the September quarter was the second worst result since September 2007.

Adani’s decision comes after the company reworked the mine’s timetable to ramp up to 27 million tonnes annual production over several stages and revealed plans to cut costs by using part of Aurizon’s existing narrow-gauge rail network.

Once touted as a $16.5 billion mega-mine, industry experts now expect the first stage of the Carmichael mine to cost about $2 billion.

Mr Dow said Adani would begin construction immediately after receiving final environmental management plans from the State and Federal governments.

“We have already started our plan for mobilisation and the moment we have got those plans from the State and Federal government, we will be starting construction,’’ Mr Dow said. “We are excited about getting on and delivering the jobs for Queensland.”

Resources Minister Matt Canavan said the Carmichael mine would be of great benefit to Townsville, Bowen, Mackay, Rockhampton and Gladstone.

Australian Conservation Foundation chief Kelly O’Shanassy promised a renewed fight to stop the mine.

There is a large pipeline of work still to come which means that investment in renewable energy is likely to remain at a high level over the next few years. Kristina Clifton, an economist at CBA, on Australia’s upswing in spending, particlarly on non-mining investment