Government loan veto leaving mine in limbo

LABOR will return to power with the Adani coal project, its biggest hope for jobs and the economy, running out of financing options after a sustained attack from environmental groups.

The $ 21 billion Adani megamine and its swag of jobs is on a knife edge after China effectively said the project did not stack up.

The massive project has now suffered from Australian banks walking away from funding it after a shaming campaign by activists, followed by Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk promising to veto federal tax funds of up to $ 1 billion going towards the project which raised sovereign risk.

And this week former foreign minister Bob Carr teamed up with the Australian Conservation Foundation president Geoff Cousins to lobby China’s Government and industry against the mine, which needs about $ 3 billion in loans.

That led to the Chinese Embassy telling Mr Cousins that because of a lack of commercial feasibility, an institution in the early stages of negotiating with Adani had terminated the talks and no other institution had made a commitment to it.

Queensland Resources Council boss Ian Macfarlane was scathing in his comments of Mr Carr for undermining the project, calling his actions a disgrace, but said he was “confident it will still succeed’’.

“The crazy thing is if they don’t get the coal from Australia they will get it from somewhere else and it will be dirtier,’’ he said.

Other mining industry sources said the project was not dead and there were other financing options like selling a stake in the project, an option Adani has previously floated.