Adani Enterprise’s Australian arm, Bravus Mining and Resources, has struck first coal from its Carmichael mine on Thursday and will start shipping to its customers according to schedule.
The project had been planned in 2010 with an investment of Australian $16.5 billion but later scaled down to Australian $2 billion. The construction of the Carmichael Project got its final approval in 2019 and is expected to produce 15 million tonnes (mn t) of thermal coal per year, which will be later ramped up to 27.5 mn t.
Bravus’s management highlighted that India will be a foundation customer for the Carmichael mine and is the fourth largest global user of electricity as well as the source of the biggest growth in global energy demand. Bravus hasalready secured the market for the 10 mn t per annum of coal to be produced from the Carmichael Mine.
Adani’s rail corridor project in Australia
The Carmichael mine project also includes construction of the Adani Carmichael Coal and Railway Project in Queensland. The 200-km narrow-gauge Carmichael Rail project will connect the Carmichael mine to the North Queensland Export Terminal through the existing rail infrastructure.
At this juncture, the Adani Railway Project boasts a capacity of 40 mtpa with maximum loaded speed of 80km/hr. The rail infrastructure will be capable of transporting 60 mn t of coal per year, playing a crucial part in charting out the future of coal mining in Queensland and Australia at large.
The completion of the railway in 2021 will open the doors to other coal mines in the Galilee Basin, which is one of the largest untapped coal reserves in the world. Spread across an area of around 247,000 square kms, the Galilee basin is located nearly 200 kms west of the Bowen Basin. There are currently nine mega coal mines proposed in the Galilee Basin, which together make it the second biggest fossil fuel expansion proposed anywhere in the world (after Western China).
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