Australian minister backs Adani project

Natural resources minister Matthew Canavan says delays in clearance in India are as bad as Australia

Australian natural resources minister Matthew Canavan has said the Adani group's integrated coal project in his country has about 70-80% support of the local community. Work on the Carmichael project would start within 2017.

By early 2018, first coal is likely to be produced. The Carmichael coal, railway and port project includes building Australia’s largest thermal coal mine in the north Galilee Basin approximately 160 km north-west of Clermont in Central Queensland. A new 388 km standard gauge rail line to a new terminal at Abbot Point Port near Bowen will also be built. According to the company, the combined mine, rail and port operations will provide over 10,000 direct and indirect jobs and supply opportunities for local businesses.

Canavan said, “Hope was in the horizon for the project despite all the delays." He said the project would be the first such one to get off the ground in the region spurring other investment. “The delays have been frustrating,” he told Business Standard in an interview. But now, only last mile clearances at the local level were pending, and federal and state clearances were in place.

Adani Mining Pty Ltd (Adani) began formal environmental assessment of the Carmichael Coal Mine and Rail Project (the Project) in 2010, through preparation of an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS), to address the state and federal government approval requirements. Local protests and court cases, however, delayed the project.

Canavan, who is on his first visit to India, has been an open supporter of the Adani project sometimes even courting controversy with the local media there.

On the opportunities available in India for Australian companies, he said they were concerned about the business environment in India especially with regard to clearances. He, however, was not much worried about this. “These things go in both directions,” he said referring to delays both in India and Australia.

Canavan said Australian companies were looking at opportunities in the mid sector of natural resource mining rather than commercial mining of coal. “If the Indian government is looking at attracting investment in the sector from Australia, there are opportunities for our country to share technologies, techniques, and investment directly. We are interested in mining engineering, technology service and logistics, what we call mid-sector. We are have a 10-year plan to try and grow that sector domestically. And we are also looking at international opportunities in this sector.”

The minister who is also in-charge of north Australia said there was great deal of competition between the two countries on something like coal. “We both can work together through trade,” he said. India imported 48.2 million tonne of coal in 2016 from Australia of which 4.8 mt was thermal coal. The country’s mainstay is coking coal used mainly by the steel industry. Thermal coal is used for power generation.

The Carmichael coal is likely to be imported to India. The project in December 2016 crossed a major milestone when it received approval for a permanent rail line and a temporary construction camp. Adani Power operates India’s largest single location private sector power plant in Mundra, Gujarat. The 4,620 mw project was primarily planned as an imported coal based power plant. It uses domestic coal as well.