Located in EPC 1690, which Adani purchased from Linc Energy in August for $500 million plus a royalties agreement, the project is about 100 kilometres north of Emerald.
Adani is targeting a mine life of 150 years with thermal coal production to peak at 60Mtpa.
Mining is expected to consist of six pits of “combined open cut and underground workings” to produce up to 10Mtpa each over a stretch of land 45km long.
Back in July, both Adani and Dalrymple Bay Coal Terminal Management were selected as preferred proponents to develop new coal export terminal facilities at Dudgeon Point near Hay Point.
Adani has not decided its preferred port option, but rail linking the Carmichael mine to Abbot Point through the proposed Alpha rail alignment is expected to cost $6 billion, while a rail line connecting to the Goonyella line to Dudgeon Point could cost $6.8 billion.
Mine construction is anticipated to cost $4.1 billion.
The total mine, rail and port development is expected to employ 5000 people while Adani is targeting an operational workforce of 4000.
The proposed development has already received “significant project” status from the Queensland government and the draft terms of reference were submitted as part of the early phase of the state’s environmental assessment process.
Public comments to the terms of reference are due by March 28.
With the project 160km northwest of Clermont, Isaac Regional Council mayor Cedric Marshall has already spoken to the ABC about his concerns over accommodation and whether the mine would host a fly-in, fly-out workforce.
Most of the coal will be destined for India’s hungry power generation market.
Private company AMCI and Bandanna Energy are targeting 15-20Mtpa of thermal coal from their South Galilee project, with plans to access proposed rail development in the region as a third party.
Billionaires Clive Palmer and Gina Rinehart have their own major rail and mining projects in the unexploited basin.
Palmer’s Waratah Coal joint venture with Metallurgical Corporation of China is targeting 40Mtpa in the China First project.
Rinehart is advancing two 30Mtpa Galilee projects through Hancock Coal.
Palmer and Rinehart each have plans to develop rail links of around 500km to Abbot Point.
Yet Hancock is also marketing its two Galilee projects.
India’s GVK Power & Infrastructure made a bid just short of $US2 billion for the Kevin’s Corner project, according to the country’s Economic Times newspaper.
Palmer has previously poured cold water on the prospect that both companies could share the costs of a single rail development.
“They [Hancock] have got no money,” he told ILN after an address to the Sydney Mining Club in December.
“To build the railway costs $2.5 billion and to date no one in the Galilee Basin has offered me $1.5 billion to share it. To be honest they don’t have the money. It’s just all talking.”
