India's Adani Enterprises Plans Huge Coal Mine in Australia

Proposed mine site is only 100 km north of Emerald (in red). This is in the context of the much wider expanse of Queensland which measures about 2,500 km from north to south. The mine would produce about 60 million tons of coal per year, with a mine life of more than a century.
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Australia's ABC News, February 14, 2012 reports http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-02-14/indian-group-plans-qlds-biggest-coal-mine/3828486

"Indian group plans [Queensland, Australia's] biggest coal mine
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By Kim Lyell February 14, 2012 10:16:13

An Indian conglomerate is planning to build Queensland's biggest coal mine, west of Rockhampton in the state's central region, including a new town, runway, railway and port facilities. The Adani Group [usually called Adani Enterprises] has proposed a new open-cut and underground mine, mostly on the Moray Downs cattle station, about 100 kilometres north of Emerald. 

The cost of construction is expected to be at least $6 billion and the mine would produce about 60 million tonnes per year, with a mine life of more than a century.

If the project goes ahead, Adani says it would be the largest investment by an Indian company in Australia.

The company is also planning to establish a new town to deal with the Carmichael mine's remote location.

[Adani may need to be persuasive to make it happen!]

[Queensland's Mining Minister Stirling Hinchliffe says the project is still in its early stages.]

"It is a massive project, a massive development - there is a long way to go in terms of regulatory and environmental approvals," he said.

However, AgForce president Brent Finlay says the rural lobby group is concerned about the sale of grazing land for mining.

"Any change of ownership or any change of land use, particularly when it's very good agricultural land, is a concern to us," he said.

"Whether the whole area's going to be taken out of agricultural production or whether only a small area will be and the rest still used for agricultural production, we'd like to know as soon as we can.""
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Pete