Adani starts Australia operations

Adani Enterprises Ltd (AEL) today commenced business in Australia by opening its office at Brisbane and announced its commitment to invest $6.9 billion for developing mine, rail and port projects in its Galilee Basin coal mine in Queensland, Australia, to produce up to 60 million tonnes of coal a year at its peak.

Mr Gautam Adani, Executive Chairman and founder of the Adani Group, said today's opening of its Brisbane office by the Queensland Premier, Ms Anna Bligh, marked an important milestone towards his company's goal of mining 200 million tonnes per annum (MTPA) of coal, generating 20,000 MW of power and moving 200 million tonnes (MT) of cargo through the Adani Group's ports by 2020, a company spokesman said here.

“This investment in Australia represents the largest-ever Indian investment in Australia and an important benchmark investment in low-rank thermal coal assets, a segment that has previously been ignored for reasons of inadequate logistics,” Mr Adani said, adding global investors were now recognising the economic potential of large deposits supported by large-scale logistics solutions.

This investment has unlocked the enormous potential of what were once unviable resources. Undoubtedly, Queensland would lead Australia in creating huge export surpluses in the balance of trade with India, he said.

Queensland Premier Ms Bligh said the Galilee tenement, now being renamed as the Carmichael tenement, was set to become, at peak production, the largest operating coal mine in Australia, and one of the largest in the world.“We are targeting the first coal by the end of 2014 and a production of between 50 and 60 MTPA to be achieved by 2022,” Mr Adani said.

Other avenues

Additionally, the Adani Group would explore opportunities for downstream value addition, including UCG and CTL technologies, within the framework of government policy. “Our strengths lie in being able to integrate across the value chain, right from mining to rail and port logistics, shipping and finally to power generation. This insulates us from component market variations and expedites project implementation.”