Excavation begins on Adani Carmichael mine

A year after the approval of the controversial Carmichael mine, Adani has started digging towards the coal seam that is expected to yield up to 10 million tonnes of coal a year.

Former BHP executive David Boshoff gets down and dirty in his new role as chief executive at Adani’s Carmichael coalmine site. Picture: Cameron Laird

A year after the approval of the Carmichael mine, Adani has started digging towards a seam expected to yield up to 10 million tonnes of thermal coal a year.

Excavation of the open cut mine in the Galilee Basin in central Queensland began late last week with the removal of rock above the coal deposit.

Adani says the first coal from the $2bn mine, approved in June last year, will be exported in 2021 through its port at Abbot Point, north of Bowen in the Whitsunday region.

The construction milestone comes after the surprise resignation last week of chief executive Lucas Dow, who has been replaced by former BHP executive David Boshoff.

In a statement on Thursday, Mr Boshoff announced the digging of the mine pit and said the company was “on track” to meet its export target. “It’s great to see our big new gear, the Liebherr R 996B excavator and CAT 796 dump trucks, hard at work,” he said.

“In time, they will reach the coal seam then we will be excavating coal as we need to remove around four cubic metres of rock for every tonne of coal we mine.”

The milestone comes despite significant pressure by environmental activists on companies to forgo working on the project.

The company downsized the project since its original conception but has approval to mine 60 million tonnes a year.

About 700 people are employed on construction of the mine, and hundreds more positions have been advertised by civil construction contractor Martinus, which is building the 200km rail line that will be used to carry the coal from the mine to the port.

Mackay-based G&S Engineering was this month awarded a contract to design and build a new coal handling plant at the mine.

Mr Boshoff said the company would meet its target of creating 1500 direct and 6750 indirect jobs.

The first five of Adani’s 24 mining trucks have been assembled in Mackay and driven to the mine site 300km away. A second excavator is under construction. “We’re committed to using conventional truck and excavator mining techniques across the project,” Mr Boshoff said.

Mr Dow remains on the Adani board as a non-executive director.