Name of the Project
Carmichael coal mine project.

Location
The project is located about 160 km north-west of Clermont, in Queensland, Australia.

Client
Adani Mining, a wholly owned subsidiary of India’s Adani Group.

Project Description
Adani proposes to build a 60-million-tonne-a-year opencut and underground greenfield coal mine, in the Galilee basin, as well as a 189 km greenfield rail line, connecting the mine to the existing Goonyella and Newlands rail system, south of Moranbah.

Development on the mine site within the mining lease will include:
• six opencut pits, with a combined capacity of 40-million tonnes a year of product coal, predominantly mined by a truck-and-shovel/excavator operation, supplemented by draglines and dozers for overburden removal;
• five independent underground longwall mines with a combined capacity of 20-million tonnes a year of product coal, mining two seams of more than 45 km north to south, a conceptual longwall panel length of 5 000 m, 300-m-wide longwall panel voids and an extraction face of between 3 m and 4.5 m high;
• five mine infrastructure areas servicing each of the opencut and underground mines comprising mine-service areas, power and fuel supply storage, water supply and management, mine water management, roads, transport facilities, waste disposal facilities, communications and medical facilities;
• a coal handling and processing plant, designed to process 74.5-million tonnes a year of raw coal;
• out-of-pit waste rock structures to store the initial volumes of the project’s 13.1-billion bank cubic metres of overburden and interburden, prior to the storage of waste rock in mine voids, when available; and
• coal stockpiles, tailings storage cells, water management structures, a 2.5 km portion of the rail loop and coal-loading facilities adjacent to the rail.

Off-lease infrastructure includes:
• a workers accommodation village and associated facilities, located 12 km east of the mine, which includes accommodation for up to 3 500 employees, with medical, kitchen/dining, laundry and recreational facilities, parking, sewerage and power infrastructure, a maintenance shed, as well as hazardous materials and chemicals storage;
• an airport to provide access for a 150-seater aircraft and the project’s fly-in, fly-out workforce, including a runway and terminal with security, amenities, a café, departure lounge, parking and passenger sit-down areas, emergency fuel storage and aerodrome rescue, as well as firefighting services facilities;
• a heavy industrial area, with facilities to service and maintain the mine, as well as offsite infrastructure and rail, including vehicle and equipment fabrication and maintenance workshops, a concrete batching plant, a hot-mix bituminous plant, bulk fuel storage, vehicle wash areas, warehouse and storage, as well as office and administration buildings.

The industrial area is proposed to be located directly north of the proposed rail alignment, which will allow for access to a rail siding for use in supply logistics during mine development.

The area will include:
• water supply infrastructure to allow for the extraction, storage and delivery of up to 12.5 G ℓ/y of water, with an average yearly extraction of 10 Gℓ, including a floodwater harvester on the Belyando river, a 70 km raw water supply pipeline from the Belyando river to the mine site, pumpstations, and an offsite storage facility; and
• the upgrade and realignment of the Moray–Carmichael road to circumvent the mine footprint.

The rail component of the project includes a greenfield rail line, connecting the mine to the existing Goonyella and Newlands rail systems to allow for the export of coal through the ports of Hay Point and Abbot Point respectively, including:
• a 120 km dual-gauge rail from the mine site, running from west to east to Diamond Creek;
• a 69 km narrow-gauge rail, running east from Diamond Creek and connecting to the Goonyella and Newlands rail system, south of Moranbah; and
• 4.5 km dual-gauge reception and departure lines, and an 18.7 km balloon loop loading line, predominantly located outside the mining lease.

The rail component of the project also includes four construction camps, located at about 60 km intervals along the proposed rail line, each accommodating 400 people; 29 track and 25 bridge laydown areas; and a construction depot close to the Borrow 7 quarry and the Gregory developmental road.

Further, there will be five quarries adjacent to the rail line to extract fill materials for the construction and maintenance of the railway, road construction and upgrades, and embankment material.

Jobs to be Created
The combined mine, rail and port operations are expected to create more than 10 000 direct and indirect jobs and supply opportunities for local businesses.

Net Present Value/Internal Rate of Return
Not stated.

Value
A$21.7-billion.

Duration
Construction of the mine is expected to start in 2017.

Latest Developments
Adani has confirmed that construction on the Carmichael coal and rail project is expected to start in August.

Chairperson Guatam Adani has indicated that the outstanding approvals and licences are expected “within the next couple of months”.

Financial close for the project is also expected soon, before work on the Queensland project starts.

Adani has reportedly applied for financing from the Northern Australian Infrastructure Facility to partly fund the multibillion-dollar project.

Meanwhile, the Minerals Council of Australia (MCA) has labelled the latest environmental resistance against the Carmichael coal project as “futile and cynical attention seeking”.

The MCA was responding to an announcement by former Greens party leader Bob Brown on March 22, in which he said he would launch an alliance of 13 environmental groups opposed to the multibillion-dollar project.

The alliance will include the Bob Brown Foundation, the Australian Conservation Foundation, Get Up and the Australian Marine Conservation Society.

The Stop Adani Alliance will reportedly lobby against the development of the coal mine, with Brown citing polling that showed three-quarters of Australians are opposed to Adani’s plan to tap a A$900-million government subsidy to help fund infrastructure to connect the mine.

Key Contracts and Suppliers
None stated.

On Budget and on Time?
Not stated.

Contact Details for Project Information
Adani Mining, tel + 61 7 3223 4800, fax + 61 7 3223 4850 or email Reception.Australia@adani.in.