Australia clears Adani Group’s Carmichael coal mine with 36 conditions

In a statement released on Thursday, Mr Hunt said the mine development had been approved “subject to 36 of the strictest conditions in Australian history”.

The approval is based on the protection and improvement of 31,000 hectares of the southern black-throated finch habitat.

The approval conditions will provide long-term benefits for the environment through the development of an offset package, it said. “These measures must be approved by myself before mining can be approved”, Mr Hunt said.

It is certainty over the remaining approvals that are now key to the company progressing its plan to deliver mine, rail, and port projects in Queensland that will deliver 10,000 direct and indirect jobs, and $22 billion in taxes and royalties to be reinvested back into community services.

In August, Adani’s environmental authority for the $16.5 billion project was set aside after court action was taken by the Mackay Conservation Group, which alleged Mr Hunt had not considered department advice about two threatened species – the Yakka Skink and Ornamental Snake.

Mr Hunt said his approval for the project, in the Galilee Basin in remote central Queensland, considered additional information provided by Adani and environmental groups.

Today’s announcement comes after the Abbott government announced in late August that it would push for changes to the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act to stop “radical green activists” engaging in “vigilante litigation” aimed at blocking major projects.

A few Aus$1 million of funding over 10 years also has to be allocated to research programmes that boost the conservation of threatened species in the Galilee Basin, about 1,200 kilometres (745 miles) northwest of Queensland’s capital Brisbane.

“The way is now clear for Adani to get on with the job of building the Carmichael mine and the associated rail infrastructure, and that means jobs and investment dollars will start to flow”, Mr Christensen said.

But critics challenged the approval of the mine in Federal Court mainly because of concerns that two vulnerable animal species would be threatened.

“This was due to the possibility that the advice on the approval decision had not been provided in a particular manner which may have affected the validity of the decision”, Australia’s environment ministry said on its website.

“Hunt’s new conditions do not adequately deal with the seriousness of the implications of this mine”, Mackay Conservation Group coordinator Ellen Roberts said.

The mine would be the biggest in Australian and one of the biggest in the world, requiring a mega port along the Great Barrier Reef coastline and contributing to global warming.

“The federal government and environment minister should be in the business of protecting the reef and the climate, not giving mining companies licence to destroy them”, Greenpeace’s Shani Tager said.