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• India's largest coal importer, Adani Enterprises, is all set to mine 60 million tonnes of coal each year from an open cut and underground mine in Australia, for export to India. The Carmichael Coal Project in the Galilee Basin is the last undeveloped coal resource in Queensland.The Indian firm purchased the site for USD110 million and plans to spend USD 6 billion on the project. An official said a property was purchased from Graeme Acton's Moray Downs cattle station, which is stationed about 160 kilometre north-west of Clermont, to accommodate the mine.
• He added that the Adani Group also has plans to build a new airstrip and new rail and port facilities in Queensland to help it export the coal to India. The official said that “The mine's potential of 60 million tonne of coal is only in the first phase. This can go up to 100 million tones.” The mine reportedly has a life of more than 100 years.Adani boasts of being the largest single investment by an Indian firm in Australia. In May last year, the same company bought Queensland's Abbot Point Coal Terminal for USD 1.98 billion. Located in North Queensland in Australia, the Abbot terminal services three mines in the Bowen Basin and the port helps the Indian firm ship coal to its power plants in India.
• To aid finance, the Indian firm is close to finalising a long term project loan to the tune of around AUD 1.4 billion from a consortium of banks to replace the nearly USD 2 billion bridge loan raised by it to acquire Abott Point terminal last year.Chief Financial Officer Mr Devang Desai told newswire agencies that the firm is taking loans from banks in Australia and that the process is at the documentation stage. The firm is in talks with some of the top banks in Australia including, Commonwealth Bank, National Australia Bank and Westpac Banking Corp.
• Last year, the Ahmedabad based diversified group got a one year bridge loan to fund the acquisition of Abbot Point coal terminal from Standard Chartered Bank and State Bank of India. Desai said by replacing the bridge loan, the company would be saving on the local currency and that it would get long term project finance for five years.Earlier, in the Galilee Basin, it had bought Australian Linc Energy's coal tenement for USD 3 billion, including USD 500 million payment and USD 2.5 billion in royalties.Mining firms active in the Australian state ave been warned to hire local workers at their projects, Adani has repeatedly said it would employ Australian workers before it considers overseas workers. The project would initially employ 5,000 workers in the construction phase, and another 4,000 ongoing jobs.

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