GVK Hancock gets environmental clearance for its Queensland Project

Proposed Alpha mine stated to be having 1.2 bn tonnes of coal reserves

After over six years of environmental assessments and detailed planning, GVK Hancock has been granted an Environmental Authority clearance for its Alpha Coal Project in the Galilee Basin of Central Queensland in Australia.

"This is one of the most significant milestones in the development of our Galilee Basin coal projects till date which will create one of the most remarkable pieces of regional and economic developments Queensland has seen for decades", founder chairman and managing director of the Hyderabad-based GVK group, GV Krishna Reddy, stated in a press release here on Thursday.

"This milestone takes us another step closer towards commencing our proposed Alpha mine, which will create around 4,000 jobs during its three year construction and more than 1,800 jobs over its 30 plus years of operation. We've invested tens of millions of dollars and thousands of man hours assessing, planning and engaging with communities to reach this stage", GVK vice chairman, G V Sanjay Reddy, stated.

With the environmental approval, GVK said that its key focus now would be to continue advancing the project to a point where construction could commence.

Once the infrastructure joint venture with Aurizon, an Australian rail freight company, was finalised and the regulatory bodies have addressed litigious challenges to approvals, GVK Hancock would execute coal off-take agreements before finalising all financing arrangements.

The proposed Alpha mine is stated to be having 1.2 billion tonnes of coal reserves and will be a full open cut mine producing around 32 million tonnes per annum for 30 years.