ADANI has called for an end to the myths which have made its Carmichael mine the most demonised project in Australia: source – Courier Mail
The company’s Australian mining boss, Lucas Dow, said misinformation and rumours had delayed the project for years and led to “other countries eating our lunch”.
“I am entirely comfortable about people having different opinions about our project. The only thing I would ask is that it is based on facts and that people judge us on our actions,’’ Mr Dow said.
Many Australians consider the mine to be an environmental disaster, a potential killer of the Great Barrier Reef because of the contribution the coal will make to CO2 emissions generated by its burning.
“We’ve even had people come to us thinking that we are mining the Reef,’’ he said.
He said the term ‘megamine’ was not accurate because it would move about the same amount of coal and waste material as BHP’s joint venture at Blackwater.
As for whether the mine would create 10,000 jobs as Adani has long claimed – and which led to questions at a federal level about if the project was in the national interest – Mr Dow would not confirm an exact number.
“The real debate around the jobs is that whether it’s 10,000 or 9000 or 5000, these are jobs that don’t exist right now,” he said.
“This is not a cannibalisation or displacement of jobs, rather it’s the creation of them. The jobs are real. They will come through in stages, obviously, as we go through the construction phase and there will be peak and then we will get into sustaining operations.”
Mr Dow said the delays meant Australia was missing a “wonderful opportunity”.
“To be perfectly frank, other countries are eating our lunch by our inability to open up the Galilee.
“The US and Russia are pushing hard into those target markets of India of China.
“One of the things we are focusing on is closing out the financing and it has been a frustrating path for us when we had the false start of NAIF,” Mr Dow said, referring to the Queensland Premier’s decision last year to veto funding from the Federal Government’s Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility.
“Ultimately I want to see the Galilee Basin get up and I want to see Adani get up and get a fair go like any other Australian mine.”
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