Adani's A$16bn (US$21.5bn) Carmichael coal mine project in Queensland (Australia) has cleared another hurdle, as the Federal Court has dismissed the Australian Conservation Foundation’s claim against the project and found that the approval decision by the government was lawful.
The Carmichael project was proposed in 2010. It was approved by the Queensland government in May 2014 and by the Australian government in July 2014. The federal environment minister re-issued the environmental approval in October 2015 and the Environment Department of the Queensland government (Australia) gave its final environmental approval in February 2016 but a series of legal challenges by environmental groups against the project have delayed the project.
The controversial Carmichael project is estimated to hold 10 Gt of coal reserves and should produce 60 Mt/year of thermal coal. Coal production is expected to start in 2017, three years behind the original target. Adani initially planned to complete the approval process in two to three years.