Adani Enterprises on Tuesday said it had given the Final Investment Decision approval to proceed with its $16.5 billion Carmichael coal mine project in Queensland, Australia, Bloomberg reported. The project, which was first proposed in 2010, had been put on hold last month until there was more clarity on the royalties Adani needed to pay.
The company said the project would create 10,000 direct and indirect jobs and the pre-construction work will start in September, news.com.au reported. The coal from the mine will be exported to India.
The project has faced opposition from several environmental activists who had raised concerns about its impact on the local ecosystem, including the Great Barrier Reef. “We are still facing activists,” Gautam Adani, company chairperson, said in a press release. “But we are committed to this project.”
Many raised concern over the lack of funding for the project. Earlier, some major banks like Germany’s Deutsch Bank and Commonwealth Bank of Australia had refused to participate in the controversial coal project. “Adani is yet to lure any financial institutions willing to bankroll the project, which is proving hugely unpopular with the Australian public,” Geoff Cousins, president at Australian Conservation Foundation, told news.com.au.
The Carmichael project is located in Galilee Basin. The Adani Group had approached the Northern Australian Infrastructure Facility to finance the rail line that is part of the project. “We are building more than a rail line,” Adani’s Australian chief Jayakumar Janakraj had told The Australian. “We are building a line that will open the Galilee Basin, linking that massive coal reserve to markets around the world, generating power.”
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