Indian conglomerate Adani’s chairman, Gautam Adani, has told an Australian business forum in India his country still needs imported resources, contradicting the Indian government’s policy of coal self-sufficiency.
“Imports of high-quality resources to augment domestic mining will be required,” Mr Adani said at the conclusion of the Australia-India CEO forum in New Delhi, according to an ABC News report.
Adani plans to import 60 million tonnes of coal from Australia each year, from the company’s controversial Carmichael mine in Queensland.
The company gave the project, which has the approval of Australia’s conservative Liberal-National government and the state Labor government, the go-ahead earlier this year and several days ago Mr Adani said construction would start in October.
ABC News reports Mr Adani’s comments appeared to be aimed at justifying the mine, which will be one of the world’s largest.
The mine has been subject to repeated legal challenges from environmental groups and is also opposed by indigenous people on whose land it will be built.
Stating bluntly that India needs more high-quality coal than it can currently mine runs counter to the policy of India’s government and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, with whom Mr Adani has previously associated.
In June this year, India’s Energy Minister Piyush Goyal told a press conference, “We do not wish to import any coal from anywhere in the world”.
“We have sufficient coal capacity,” Mr Goyal said.
India currently gets almost 59 per cent of its power from coal-fired generators.
Government planning documents show although it is rapidly expanding solar and other renewable energy supplies, India will remain primarily reliant on coal for electricity until 2040.
Australian environmental groups opposing the Carmichael mine have long argued it ought not be built because of questions about its viability.
In a separate interview earlier this week, Mr Adani celebrated a recent appeal victory over the Australian Conservation Foundation (ACF), which had challenged the Carmichael mine’s environmental approval.
Mr Adani said he expected the mine to be producing coal by 2020.
One Response
This company will say anything. The day will come when all associated are charged and convicted for mass murder.