No automation at Carmichael mine and jobs are for regional Queensland, Adani vows

Mining giant Adani has reaffirmed its commitment to regional jobs and said the mine will “not be automated”

MINING giant Adani has reaffirmed its commitment to regional jobs and said the mine will “not be automated”.

The company has advertised more than 50 job opportunities for the Carmichael mine as it ramps up movement on the project in anticipation of final approval sign off.

Adani has drawn criticism on the number of jobs it will create, especially considering the pace of automation in the industry.

An Adani spokeswoman said the jobs advertisements were being targeted at regional Queenslanders, particularly those in Townsville, Rockhampton and Mackay.

“The Carmichael Project will be a 10 million tonne per annum mine and 200km railway, which will see 1,500 direct jobs and 6,750 indirect jobs created during ramp up and construction,” she said.

“We remain committed to Townsville and Rockhampton as the primary hubs of employment for the Carmichael Project, with regions such as the Whitsunday, Isaac, Central Highlands, Mackay, Charters Towers and Gladstone regions also benefiting from work packages for our project.

“The mine will not be automated. We will use the same conventional coal mining techniques and equipment used in other Queensland coal mines.”

In 2015, before the mine was scaled back from an output of 60 million tonnes per year, then chief executive Jeyakumar Janakaraj said Adani would be utilising at least 45, 400-tonne driverless trucks and that “all the vehicles will be capable of automation”.

“When we ramp up the mine, everything will be autonomous from mine to port. In our eyes, this is the mine of the future,” he said at the time.

Adani reaffirmed that it needed no government funding to deliver the project and would not be engaging people on 457 visas to work on the project.

The spokeswoman also defended the number of jobs the mine will create, saying it will be similar to other open cut coal mines of a similar size in Queensland.

“Job numbers for operational open cut coal mines of a similar size in Queensland range between 800 and 1,500 roles,” she said.

“When the Carmichael mine enters operation we expect it to require a similar amount of operational roles.”

Blackwater Mine, which produces 14.6 million tonnes of coking coal per annum, employs 2038 workers as at September 2018 while the Curragh Mine (13.6 million tonnes of coking coal per annum) has 1753 workers.

Clermont Coal mine (13.6 million tonnes of thermal coal per annum) employs 651 people.

Originally published as No automation at Carmichael mine and jobs are for regional Queensland, Adani vows