Council threatens access road to Adani coal mine in Central Qld

The mayor of a remote Queensland council says she is ‘drawing a line’ in a shock move against the controversial coal company.

A remote council in Central Queensland is threatening to shut down access to the massive Bravus coal mine.

The shock move hinges over the delayed delivery of the Moray-Elgin-Carmichael access road to the mine site, with a decision due next month.

A condition in Bravus’ approval to open the mine was to build and seal a 96km rural road, a stretch that services the region’s farmers.

The road was pegged for a March 2023 completion date but about 10km has been finished so far.

Isaac Mayor Anne Baker is fuming.

“It is way, way short of the 96,” she said.

“We have worked for years now to be very reasonable and understand there are various examples on a range of issues at times where things haven’t been able to happen.

“But we are drawing the line now.

Bravus works on the mine access road. Picture: Bravus

“At 11 years of ongoing discussion, the very one positive benefit for our region with this project, is the conditioning and construction of that 96km of road, which has not been delivered.”

A Bravus Mining and Resources spokesman said the road infrastructure agreement required sealing to begin after the Carmichael mine entered operations in June 2022.

“Since June 2022 we have upgraded 11.5 kilometres of the Mine Access Road at a cost of $85m,” the spokesman said.

“These works have included permanent sealing of these sections and construction of two major waterway crossings.

“This work began once the mine entered operations, in accordance with the terms agreed with council, and followed a number of years in which we completed maintenance works on the road as also required.

“Further works are underway and we continue to negotiate in good faith with council.”

The spokesman also said wet weather, resource shortages and resolving design parameters with the council had caused some delays.

Isaac Regional Council Mayor Anne Baker.

Mayor Baker said the council would meet again with Bravus, formerly known as Adani, in mid-May.

She said if the company could not demonstrate the road would be fully completed by December 2025, her council would move to block the road, which is council-owned.

“Council is very serious,” she said.

“People need to do what they say they are going to do in a timely manner and not impact our host communities.”

The $2.5b mine and rail behemoth digs up about 10m tonnes of coal per annum and rails it to the Abbot Point terminal near Bowen for export to Asia-Pacific markets.