Melbourne: Indian energy giant Adani has urged the Australian government to give its controversial coal mine project ‘a fair go’ and indicated that the opposition party would not derail the proposed billion dollar project if it comes to power.
Gautam Adani-led Adani Group entered Australia in 2010 with the purchase of the greenfield Carmichael coal mine in the Galilee Basin in central Queensland, and the Abbot Point port near Bowen in the north. The massive coal mine in Queensland state has been a controversial topic, with the project expected to produce 2.3 billion tonnes of low-quality coal.
“We’re every asking for a fair go and to be treated like everyone else. I think at certain points that have not been the case. We’re certainly not whining about it. We just want to get on with it now. We want a fair go,” Adani Mining CEO Lucas Dow, was quoted as saying Wednesday by the ‘Australian Broadcasting Corporation’.
Dow said the sort of scrutiny that the project was facing on the management plans was unprecedented. The Adani project which still require to clear few more approvals from the Queensland Government, including groundwater modelling, recently received the clearance from federal government for development.
Commenting if the mine project could run any risk if the Labour Party came to power, Dow said, “I think (Federal Labour) has been crystal clear that if they are to form government they won’t be in the habit of creating sovereign risk by ripping up the existing approvals.”
The federal approval for the Adani project came just before Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced that the federal elections are set for next month.
Dow denied directly lobbying with the Prime Minister for the final approval before the election announcement and said, “’We provided updates on both sides of politics, to be able to give people clarity in terms of exactly where our project was up to, what we need to be able to do, to be able to then step in and start delivering jobs for thousands of Queenslanders.”
Meanwhile, environment groups have continued their campaign against the mine. “We don’t really know why these approvals were granted in such a rush,” Christian Slattery of ‘Australian Conservation Foundation said. “We have big concerns about the integrity of that process given that there was substantial pressure on the minister from other members of the Government,” Slattery added.
Carmichael would be the largest coal mine in Australian and one of the biggest in the world.
Adani said last year it would fully fund the coal mine and rail project itself, but did not give an updated estimate of the cost of the mine. The mine previously was estimated to have a value of about USD 2.9 billion.
