Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk yesterday opened Adani’s head office in Townsville and confirmed Adani would be paying its royalties for Carmichael in full after a bitter factional impasse over the issue in the Queensland cabinet last week.

“Three months ago, I led a delegation of regional Queensland mayors and travelled to India to seek the earliest possible investment decision and start for the project,” Palaszczuk said.

“With the final investment decision announced, I welcome contracts being completed for early suppliers to the project in regional Queensland and I urge the start to early works to support even more jobs for Queenslanders.”

Adani, which first submitted its environmental impact statement for the project 2392 days ago, had to fend off 10 appeals to courts by environmentalists.

The Minerals Council of Australia executive director of coal Greg Evans said the decision followed a rigorous approval process that had stretched over a six year period against the backdrop of a cynical activist campaign underpinned by foreign funding.

“The development also provides significant impetus for the economy of northern Queensland and heralds the opening of a new coal mining province that will secure benefits over the long term,” he said.

“Those activists need to reflect on how they sought to stop jobs for regional Queensland families and other Australians and also how they wanted to deny economic and social advancement of millions of Indian people seeking the very modest benefit of accessible electricity.”

 

Construction

The investment decision paves the way for pre-construction work to begin in September on the project – which will be Australia’s largest coal mine – with six open cut mines, five underground mines, a coal handling and processing plant; heavy industrial area; water-supply infrastructure; and 189km rail line off-site infrastructure, including workers' accommodation village and airport.

The first stage of the development is expected to focus on the rail link, open cut operations, underground operations and associated infrastructure to produce 60 million tonnes per annum of thermal coal over the life of the mine complex.

Downer EDI has received an updated Letter of Award from Adani in relation to the mining services component of the project. 

That letter provided further clarification on the scope of work to be performed and the process for negotiating a binding mining services contract, the company said in a statement to the Australian Securities Exchange yesterday.

“The updated Letter of Award continues to be subject to the parties executing a binding mining services contract,” it said.

A total of 16 open cut pits will be progressively mined. 

During the early stages of each pit’s development overburden will be transported to out of pit dumps, where it will be profiled and rehabilitated, and a proportion will be used to reprofile the high-wall of the final voids.

The underground mine will operate concurrently with the open pits, to provide for coal blending and ensure continuity of production. The underground mine comprises three independent underground longwall mines, producing 20Mtpa, commencing from drifts located down dip of the final high-wall of the open cut mine. Each underground mine is serviced by above ground infrastructure.

A rail and port operations headquarters will be based in Bowen and a mining services centre in Mackay.

Adani chairman Gautam Adani said the final investment decision approval marked the official start of one of the largest single infrastructure – and job creating developments – in Australian history.

“This is a historic day for Adani, a historic day for regional Queensland, and a historic day for Indian investment in Australia,” he said.

“This is the largest single investment by an Indian corporation in Australia, and I believe others will follow with investments and trade deals.

 “We are committed to regional Queensland and we are committed to addressing energy poverty in India.”

Federal Resources Minister Matt Canavan said the time for waiting was over and the time for doing was beginning. 

“That is a great thing for our state,” he said.

“A great message for north Queensland and a great future now that we can all get along and work on.”

The Stop Adani Alliance dismissed yesterday’s news as a “cynical exercise” designed to attract a $1 billion loan from the federal government, despite private finance continuing to remain elusive.

Alliance spokesman Geoff Cousins called it groundhog day. 

“Adani has announced an ‘investment decision’ multiple times over the six years since it acquired this project proposal but it still floundering around trying to secure the finance it needs to obtain ‘financial close’,” he said.

“Adani is yet to lure any financial institutions willing to bankroll the project, which is proving hugely unpopular with the Australian public. Without this support and public subsidies, the heavily leveraged balance sheet of Adani Enterprises leaves no internal capacity to fund this proposal.”

“If the federal government hands Adani $1 billion of public money for this destructive mine that will destroy our Reef, we will consider all avenues, including legal action, to stop it.”

Market Forces executive director Julien Vincent said Adani still faced an uphill slog to secure finance for what was an unviable project.

“Twenty-three banks have either distanced themselves publicly from Galilee Basin coal export projects, or introduced policies that prohibit financing Adani’s mine,” he said.

“Global shifts towards clean energy and India’s move away from coal makes Adani’s project a dud prospect. No wonder no-one will touch it.”