Australia gives conditional approval for Adani’s $12.5bn Carmichael coal mine

“The Carmichael Coal Mine and Rail project has been approved under national environment law subject to 36 strict conditions”, the Australian Department of the Environment said in a note on its website.

Two rare reptiles, the yakka skink and ornamental snake, were the basis of a successful court challenge in August by an environmental group against a previous approval of the project.

Mumbai, October 15: The Australian government today approved the Adani’s group’s $16.5-billion coal project in Queensland but set a few stiff environmental conditions for its implementation.

Opposition to the Galilee Basin mine is also centred around the fact that the coal will be shipped out via Abbot Point and the Great Barrier Reef.

Although Queensland Labor is highly supportive of the Carmichael mine, the state approval is still tied up in the courts as a result of a separate legal challenge to the one which skewered its Federal authority.

Adani Mining Pty Ltd, a wholly-owned subsidiary of India’s Adani Group, is developing this controversial coal mine with a yield of 60 million tonnes per annum and a 189km railway line.

‘Both Adani and GVK, who are trying to kick-start development in the Galilee Basin, have come under attack from the anti-coal activists who don’t want Australia’s lower emission thermal coal to go to developing countries, ‘ Mr Roche said.

Adani stressed that what was required for firms planning important job and infrastructure generating jobs in Australia is conviction on approvals.

Immediately after the government’s court defeat, the Department of Environment announced that it expected the environmental approval would be reissued within two months, and it turns out they were about right. “These measures must be approved by myself before mining can start”, Hunt said in a statement.

Under the conditions, all advice from an independent scientific committee has to be implemented, 31,000 hectares of southern black throated finch habitat will be protected and improved, and groundwater at a nearby wetland will be monitored. Critics are concerned greenhouse gases from burning coal will hinder efforts at combating global warming.

Minister Hunt’s reapproval of the Carmichael mine is not surprising, given the government’s record for supporting mining and resources projects in Australia. At the same time, British bank Standard Chartered and the Commonwealth Bank of Australia have withdrawn as financial advisers, while major European and U.S. banks have refused to fund the project due to environmental concerns.

The minister’s consideration of climate change factors and the environmental history of Adani would also feature, Mr Kwan said.

Adani welcomed the decision, saying the initial legal hurdle was a “technicality” prompted by a mistake by the Department of the Environment.