Coal news and updates

The CEO of Indian mining company Adani has highlighted the local and international benefits of the proposed Carmichael coal mine project in the Galilee Basin in central Queensland.

The State Government this week approved the mining lease for the $21 billion project, with the company wanting to start construction next year.

About 300 industry stakeholders attended a networking lunch in Mackay to hear from Adani Australia's CEO Jeyakumar Janakara.

He outlined the economic and employment opportunities the project would provide, including generating power for 25 million people in India.

Rockhampton Mayor Margaret Strelow said Adani committed to job creation in regional centres.

"I think we're all here because we have skills and expertises in servicing the mining industry," she said.

Mackay Mayor Greg Williamson said he wanted the town to become a hub for equipment supply to the Galilee Basin.

"It's looking like that gear will go via Townsville not via Mackay, so we have a large amount of work to do in the next few months," he said.

The chief operating officer of subcontractor Downer Mining also spoke at the event.

The federal Member for Dawson, George Christensen, said Adani would follow through on its commitment to employ hundreds of local workers for the coal project.

"They've committed to a minimum take in the hundreds from this region and that's just the minimum take, so they're going to look first very locally at the areas like Alfred and Clermont and then they're going to look to the broader Mackay, Isaac, Whitsunday region," he said.

"They will probably have to look further afield such as Townsville and perhaps down to Rockhampton.

"They have told everyone point blank, there is no way shape of form, they're going to be bringing people in from India and I've got to say there's those rumours that go around, the Green movement normally push it, it's absolute rubbish, in fact it would be a breach of Australian law to bring in people from India when Australians can actually do the job."

In a statement on social media, Adani said it would now restart talks with contractors and stakeholders about workforces and service hubs.

Adani said Mackay, Townsville, Rockhampton and Bowen would play key roles in delivering the mine, rail and port projects.

Meanwhile, Mr Christensen and the Minister for Northern Australia, Matthew Canavan, visited mining support businesses in Mackay yesterday, as part of a push for a $100 million fund to support communities affected by the resources downturn.

The chairman of the Resource Industry Network, Tony Caruso, said mining businesses could not rely on Adani's project to pull them out of the downturn.

He said companies that were restructuring and diversifying their business models were surviving.

"It's a matter of businesses really taking the blinkers off and saying, 'well we're mining companies or we've built our businesses around mining but that's not necessarily all we can do'," he said.

"This region has a very strong engineering capability and what we want is businesses to start thinking about using that engineering skill to work in other sectors like defence or marine or infrastructure or construction.

"Most businesses now have realised that they can't wait for the Adani project or mining generally or coal pricing to come back on, so a lot of businesses have worked very hard over the last two and a half years to restructure their businesses, basically get business in this part of the cycle."

Source: abc.net