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.

On-site development within the mining lease will include:
• six opencut pits, with a combined capacity of 40-million tonnes a year of product coal, predominantly mined using a truck-and-shovel/excavator operations, 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
• a 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 Enterprises has deferred a final investment decision on its long-delayed Carmichael coal project as the Queensland state government has yet to sign off on a royalty deal for the mine.

The company had been planning to make a final investment decision (FID) on the 25-million-tonnes-a-year coal mine and rail project by the end of May.

"Adani is advised that the Queensland cabinet did not consider any submission or make a decision on royalties for the Adani project . . ." Adani spokesman, in Australia, Ron Watson has said.

"In light of that, Adani has today deferred a decision by the board on FID until the government makes a decision."

The Queensland government is considering ways to extend royalty payments to promote jobs and investment in a state that has been hammered by the commodities slump over the past five years.

However, the Labor government is encountering opposition within its own ranks, after having promised that no taxpayer money would be used to subsidise the controversial Carmichael project in the untapped Galilee basin.

While the issue has not been discussed by Cabinet, any change in the state's royalty regime will be not only for Adani but also a range of new mines and gas developments, Queensland Premier Anastasia Palazsczuk has said.

Adani has over the past six years battled green groups trying to block what will be Australia's biggest coal mine. Opponents have argued the coal exports will stoke global warming and that the project will require a port expansion that could damage the Great Barrier Reef.

The port expansion is no longer needed, as the company has shrunk the first phase of the mine from 40-million tonnes a year to 25-million tonnes, in its aim to make the mine and rail project more affordable at about $4-billion, instead of more than $10-billion.

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.