Adani Group set to export coal from Australian mine this week

New Delhi: The Adani Group will begin exporting high quality, low sulphur coal from its Carmichael mine in Australia as early as this week, tapping a new multi-decade source to meet energy needs.

"The first shipment of high-quality coal from the Carmichael mine is being assembled at the North Queensland Export Terminal in Bowen ready for export as planned," Bravus Mining & Resources - Adani Group's Australian mining company - said in a statement.

The exports, a source said, may start as early as within this week.

The conglomerate run by India's second-richest man Gautam Adani has planned an initial production of 10 million tonnes a year from the mines in the Galilee Basin. The coal has low sulphur content and high calorific value.

"We have already secured the market for the 10 million tonnes per annum of coal that will be produced at the Carmichael mine," it said. "That coal will be sold at index adjusted pricing, meaning all taxes and royalties will be paid in Australia."

The firm did not share pricing details. Coal is almost entirely destined for India, where fossil fuel is used to generate nearly 70 per cent of the electricity. The Carmichael project, proposed in 2010, had provoked a sustained campaign by climate activists in Australia and other places globally, forcing banks and insurers not to work with the Adani group. The ports-to-energy conglomerate self-financed the project and reduced its size to a sixth of its potential (60 million tonnes). BNY Mellon last month said it would stop working with Adani in Australia, the latest institution to do so. The Carmichael mine is located in the North Galilee Basin, more than 300 kilometres from the Queensland coastline and approximately 160 km north-west of Clermont in regional Queensland.

The firm had in July this year stated that it has struck coal and exposed the first of coal seams at the Carmichael project in Queensland. Carmichael coal will contribute to Adani Group's burgeoning energy portfolio that is designed to create a sustainable energy mix, incorporating, thermal power, solar power, wind power and gas.