Adani mine gets final environmental approval for Carmichael mine

Adani has passed its final environmental approval and can now begin work on its Carmichael mine in Central Queensland after nearly nine years of planning, fierce protests and endless political debate.

Adani Australia CEO Lucas Dow
previously said they were ready to
 begin work as soon as the approval
was given.

Queensland's Environment Department this afternoon approved the mine's groundwater management plan, with construction at the Galilee Basin to ramp up over the coming weeks.

Over the past 18 months Adani had produced about a dozen versions of its groundwater management plan. Previous attempts failed to meet key environmental requirements, including a plan to avoid destroying one of the world's last unspoiled desert oases, the Doongmabulla Springs Complex.

Read the story from ABC News by Josh Bavas - “Adani mine gets final environmental approval for Carmichael mine.”

(It was climate emergency campaigner, Phillip Sutton, who told "Climate Conversations" that Australia, and the world, has no chance of, meeting its Paris commitments before even a shovel full of coal had been dug out of the Adani mine - Robert McLean)

Adani faces higher hurdle before Carmichael mine approval

Adani faces a final major hurdle in its bid to build one of Australia's most controversial coal mines in an endangered bird's habitat in central Queensland.

Possible impacts on groundwater supplies to areas
 like the ancient Doongmabulla Springs, south-west
of the proposed Carmichael mine, remain a hurdle for Adani. 

On Friday, the Queensland government signed off on the company's black-throated finch management plan but a tougher test is looming. It must satisfy the state's Department of Environment and Science it has the right plan to manage impacts on artesian basin water supplies to important springs on the mine site,

Read the story from The Age by Tony Moore - “Adani faces higher hurdle before Carmichael mine approval".

Adani coal mine poses 'alarming' risk to sacred wetlands, traditional owners say

Traditional owners who are fighting the Adani mine in central Queensland say they welcome scientists' concerns about impacts on the Doongmabulla Springs but do not trust any government to ensure the miner protects their sacred wetlands.

Little Moses springs and its surrounds is
about 7 kilometres from the mine site.

The ABC this week became the first media organisation to visit the remote springs complex — one of the world's last unspoiled desert oases — which are at the centre of a controversial Morrison Government decision that thrust Adani forward as a federal election issue.

The trip to the nationally important wetlands was at the invitation of a determined group of mine opponents within the Wangan and Jagalingou (W&J) people, who have vowed to take their fight all the way to The Hague.

Read the ABC News story by Josh Robertson - “Adani coal mine poses 'alarming' risk to sacred wetlands, traditional owners say.”

(Asked at the April gathering of Shepparton’s Beneath the Wisteria about, Nicholls candidate and Murray electorate incumbent, Damian Drum, said the Adani mine had the support of Australia’s indigenous people, but obviously he was handling the truth rather loosely - Robert McLean)

CSIRO steps back on Adani approval

Australia’s premier scientific research agency is distancing itself from the federal government’s decision to give final federal environmental approval for the Adani Group’s Carmichael coalmine in central Queensland.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison at the press
 conference announcing the election.

The Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation, whose advice was cited alongside that of Geoscience Australia as the basis for the decision, says it was only responsible for answering a narrow set of questions, not giving the project’s whole groundwater plan a tick of approval.

The CSIRO has revealed that the undertaking Adani gave to improve its plans, which preceded federal government approval, allows it to take up to two years to redesign and check its modelling.

Read the story from The Saturday Paper by Karen Middleton - “CSIRO steps back on Adani approval.”

Clive Palmer seeks approval for 'monster mine' next door to Adani

Clive Palmer has sought federal environmental approval for a huge greenfield coal mine in central Queensland, which documents suggest could produce 33 per cent more coal than Adani's controversial and delayed Carmichael mine.

Clive Palmer's proposed Alpha North mine relative
to Adani's controversial Carmichael mine in the
 Galilee Basin.

Its viability depends on the construction of the Carmichael mine, or another mine with a rail link to the coast, adding weight to claims the Adani project could open the floodgates to significantly more coal mining in the Galilee Basin.

Environmentalists have called for the Federal Government to reject the new application out-of-hand, without a full assessment.

They pointed to the impact the mine would potentially have on climate change, freshwater springs, the Great Artesian Basin and threatened species in the area including the black-throated finch and koalas.

Read the ABC News story by Michael Slezak - “Clive Palmer seeks approval for 'monster mine' next door to Adani.”

Sydney weather and Queensland bushfire extremes have a common thread

Despite the extreme differences between the 100mm of rain on Wednesday morning in Sydney and surrounds and the large bushfires threatening people and property in central Queensland today, there is a link according to the Bureau of Meteorology (BOM).

Huge rainfall dumps on Sydney and surrounds as fires burn in Queensland.

Sarah Fitton, of the Bureau of Meteorology's extreme weather desk, explained that despite their contrasting outcomes the two are being driven by connected systems.

"The trough that's moving through Queensland today and producing quite testing fire conditions is extending down into that low-pressure system that is through New South Wales, so there is a link between the systems," she said.

Up north there is dry air, so the winds are fanning the flames, but down south there is moisture around and it is wet.

Read the story from ABC News by Kate Doyle - “Sydney weather and Queensland bushfire extremes have a common thread.”

Renewable energy abattoir project approved for central Queensland

A $308 million abattoir with its own renewable energy facility in central Queensland has been given the green light by the State Government.

Artist's impression of the solar-powered abattoir, due to be operational by 2021.

The project, to be built by the Asia Pacific Agri-corp near Gladstone, will feature a meat processing plant powered by its own on-site renewable energy facility and will be the first of its kind in Australia.

The solar farm will be on a 340-hectare site adjacent to the abattoir.

Once up and running, the facility will have the capacity to process up to 2,400 head of cattle per day.

Asia Pacific Agri-Corp managing director Daniel Daly said the addition of a renewable energy facility would make the beef processing plant viable.

Read the ABC Rural story by Rachel McGhee - “Renewable energy abattoir project approved for central Queensland.”

(The artist’s image of the proposed abattoir provides a view of a wonderfully “green” facility, but it is surrounded by and depends upon, it appears, and energy-rich infrastructure; an infrastructure that is wholly sustained by fossil fuels. As wonderful as the actual abattoirs maybe, it appears to be operating in isolation and so until it is supported by and linked to a low-energy infrastructure, it alone is of limited value. I guess, however, it is a start - Robert McLean).

Adani shuns water trigger despite drought

Indian mining giant Adani is seeking to dodge federal scrutiny of its plan to build a pipeline pumping billions of litres of water from a river in drought-stricken central Queensland to feed its Carmichael mega-mine.

The road to Adani's proposed Carmichael coal mine west of Moranbah.

Labor says the move is nonsensical and casts further doubt over the coal project, which the party is under pressure to halt should it win government.

The $16.5 billion Carmichael project would be Australia’s largest coal mine and would open Queensland’s Galilee Basin to further coal development.

In a plan being evaluated by federal environment authorities, Adani wants to build a 61 kilometre pipeline to pump up to 12.5 billion litres of water a year from the Suttor River to the mine.

The project, known as the North Galilee Water Scheme, could also provide water to “other resource extraction projects” in the region such as the China Stone coal project, Adani says.

Read the story from today’s Age by Nicole Hasham - ”Adani shuns water trigger despite drought.”

Massive wind farm approved in central Queensland

A billion-dollar wind farm planned for central Queensland is set to be the biggest in the state and one of the largest in Australia.

An artist's impression of the project, which

 is expected to begin next year.

The 195-turbine Lacour Energy project at Clarke Creek, north-west of Rockhampton, has been granted State Government approval, with construction expected to begin next year.

Company director Mark Rayner said the turbines would be positioned across eight cattle grazing properties, stretching 50 kilometres along the Broadsound Range and covering 76,000 hectares

"We have the full support of the landowners on which the project will be built on," he said.

Read the ABC News story by Megan Hendry and Jacquie Mackay - “Massive wind farm approved in central Queensland.”

Hemmed in by big coal: 'A bad feeling is constantly hanging over us’

It’s a hot summer’s afternoon at Riverside station, 50km north of the purpose-built mining town Moranbah in the central Queensland highlands. Jeanette and Allan Williams are drinking tea and eating Christmas cake around the kitchen table with three of their six children. Holly and twins Claire and Charles have returned to live and work on the family’s 80,000-hectare cattle enterprise. Running more than 16,000 Brahman cattle, the family breeds and fattens their stock on prime cattle country that grows brigalow trees and buffel grass.

 Allan and Jeanette Williams, who have coalmines encircling their cattle station. 

The homestead, which sits on top of the world’s highest-quality coal deposits, has been under threat for more than 15 years. A proposed underground mine at the family’s adjoining property, Red Hill, is likely to cut through to Riverside and under the house.

Read Paula Heelan’s story from The Guardian - “Hemmed in by big coal: 'A bad feeling is constantly hanging over us’.”

Mount Morgan abandoned mine site brings environmentalists and farmers together

It is not often you hear environmentalists and farmers asking government to help out a mining company — but that is what is happening in central Queensland as a resources project hangs in the balance.

Local landholder Ian Scott with his mother at the Dee
 River where they saw dead fish during the uncontrolled
 overflow from the old gold mine in 2013.

Since 2014, Australian company Carbine Resources has been working on a proposal to pull copper, pyrite and gold tailings from one of Queensland's biggest abandoned mines.

Ian Scott lives downstream from the old Mount Morgan gold mine, near the Dee River at Wowan, south-west of Rockhampton.

Read the ABC News story by Emilia Terzon - “Mount Morgan abandoned mine site brings environmentalists and farmers together.”

Adani Carmichael mine's rehabilitation financial assurance at least $1.5b, Lock the Gate says

Adani will have to provide financial assurance of more than $1.5 billion for the rehabilitation of the Carmichael mine proposed for central Queensland, a new report has suggested.

Environmental group Lock the Gate Alliance has analysed rehabilitation costs based on the Queensland Government's financial assurance calculator, which it argues is a conservative figure.

It concluded the initial financial assurance for the mine would be between $1.5 billion and $2 billion, based on estimates over five to 30 years of operation.

Rick Humphries from Lock the Gate Alliance said it was a significant finding.

"That would make it the largest financial assurance claim in the state," Mr Humphries said.

Read the ABC News story - “Adani Carmichael mine's rehabilitation financial assurance at least $1.5b, Lock the Gate says.”

Turnbull has a chance to burnish his green credentials

A

government crackdown to stop "vigilante" green groups challenging large mining projects in court should be passed by Parliament despite criticism they are undemocratic, a Senate inquiry controlled by the government says.

New PM, Malcolm Turnbull, can
differentiate himself from his
 predecessor by scrapping this Bill.

Labor, the Greens, community groups and environmental advocates have argued the changes proposed by the former Abbott government limit the public's right to ensure environment laws are upheld.

The bill was proposed after a Federal Court challenge by a grassroots community group threw a spanner in the works of Australia's largest coal project, Adani's Carmichael mine in central Queensland – a move former Prime Minister Tony Abbott described as "sabotage".

Read Nicole Hasham’s story in The Sydney Morning Herald - “Government-controlled Senate probe backs crackdown on green 'lawfare'.”

(Should new PM Malcolm Turnbull be eager to differentiate himself from his predecessor and within that illustrate his understanding of climate change, he would abandon this bill, reinstate democracy and again legitimize the right of a person from as far away as Western Australia to lawfully object to something such as the Adani Carmichael Mine in central Queensland, acknowledging that coal produced from the mine will be a measurable and noticeably contributor to the world’s carbon dioxide emissions – Robert McLean.)