Melbourne: The Adani Group is preparing to send the first coal cargo of the most controversial Australian mine, after struggling with seven years by climate activists and opposing the global boost from fossil fuels.
The Carmichael mine in the Queensland State outback tends to become the last new thermal coal mine to be built in Australia, the largest coal exporter in the world, but will be a vital source of supply for importers such as power plants in India.
“The first shipment of high-quality coal from the Carmichael mine is gathering at the North Queensland Export Terminal in Bowen which is ready for export according to plan,” said a spoxerson for Australian subsidiaries, Bravus Mining & Resources Adani said in a statement.
The statement did not say where shipping headed, except that “we have secured the market for 10 million tons per year of coal to be produced at the Carmichael mine”.
When Adani bought a project in 2010, he imagined building a 60 million ton-a-year mine with a 400 km train line (250 miles) for around $ 16 billion ($ 11 billion), one of the several projects planned in the Galilee basin untapped.
This shrinks mine plans in 2018 to 10 million tons per year after the campaign “stop adani” which is sustainable by green groups that scare lenders, insurance companies, and major engineering companies.
“That planning plan has maintained minimum operating costs and ensures the project remains in the first quartile of the global cost curve,” CEO of Australia Adani, Lucas Dow told Reuters in comments sent by email.
The company has not revealed smaller mine costs and the 200 km of retrieval train lines to bind to the existing train, but the project is estimated to reach $ 2 billion ($ 1.5 billion).
“This is a sufficient celebration because it will become the actual last Thermal Greenfield coal mine in Australia,” Lloyd Hain said Director of the Consultant Company Ame Group.
Climate activists, worry about carbon emissions and potential damage to the Great Barrier Reef – both from global warming and dredging at Abbot Point Port – bring some cases that challenge government approval for mines.
Their campaign turned into a lightning rod in Australia’s last election in 2019, in the work versus the environmental battle that saw the conservative coalition government that supports selected coal when expected to lose.
While activists managed to delay the project for seven years and even lead Adani to change his local name to BRAVUS, they did not claim victory.
“It’s a shame that the mine will still be continued.
But only because the open mine does not mean that all coal on the ground will come out.
We will continue to campaign to keep as much as possible on the ground,” said Andy Paine, who chained himself to the Railroad track a few weeks then.
All about Portto Coal will be exported from the terminal in Abbot Point, which adani bought for $ 2 billion in 2011 and changed its name to the North Queensland export terminal.
Analysts said it made sense for Adani to dig the mine to help make a massive investment in the coal terminal, which has been running almost half empty since Adani acquires it.
“It’s about maximizing your cash flow returns on the railway and maximizing your profits at Abbot Point,” said Buckley Team, a director at the Institute of Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA).
He said even though the Carmichael mine would become unfavorable because coal prices fell, Adani might have an incentive to expand it to 20 million tons per year to keep the port filled, when other mines entered the terminal stop producing.