‘Adani plans to supply low-quality coal from Down Under’

Energy giant Adani is planning to supply lower quality coal with high ash content to non-premium markets like India from its controversy-hit Carmichael coal and mine project in Australia’s Queensland state, according to a media report on Monday.

“The Carmichael mine will produce two coal products: product one, a low ash and moderate energy product most suitable for Asian premium markets, and Product two, a high ash or lower energy product most suitable for non-premium markets, in particular India,” ABC News quoted an extract from a sworn evidence to the Land Court in Queensland.

However, Adani Australia has clarified on its Facebook page on Monday that in terms of quality of the coal it is almost 50% than used domestically.

Last week in Brisbane, Adani Australia’s CEO Jeyakumar Janakara also told a forum that “the thing about Carmichael is, it will reduce the carbon footprint of existing [Indian] plants, which are using Indonesian or Indian coal today, by say 30 to 40%.”

Australian Resources Minister Matt Canavan had earlier said, “If Australia fails to supply India with coal from Queensland, they will get that coal elsewhere, which they’re doing right now.”

He said that while the coal product was of lower quality as compared to Australian benchmarks for energy contents and ash contents but “certainly the coal India uses, and they’re a large coal producer in their own right, is much, much lower quality”.

“Coal product is not the highest quality coal in Australia, but it was still much higher than the coal quality in India,” Canavan was quoted as saying by ABC news.

“Indian coal typically is around 3,000 kilocalories a kilogram, whereas the Galilee Basin coal roughly averages around the 5,000 mark, and that means that for every unit of every kilogram or tonne of coal you burn, you’ll get more power for it, lower carbon emissions, that’s a good thing for the environment,” the minister explained.

“The Queensland Supreme Court itself also made the point that the Adani Carmichael coal mine itself won’t increase greenhouse gas emissions, if it displaces coal from other sources,” the resource minister said, adding, “That’s exactly what it will do, because India will get coal from somewhere, (and) as I say, their own coal is generally lower quality than ours.”

“The Queensland Supreme Court itself also made the point that the Adani Carmichael coal mine itself won’t increase greenhouse gas emissions, if it displaces coal from other sources,” the resource minister said.

Company chairman Gautam Adani recently said that the final approvals from the Australian government could be by May or June, after which construction could begin.

Adani Enterprises has maintained that the work on mine project would begin this year creating 10,000 jobs for the state.

The project involves dredging 1.1 million cubic metres of spoil near the iconic Great Barrier Reef Marine Park, which will then be disposed off on land.

Inputs by NH Web Desk.