Melbourne : Indian energy giant Adani is planning to supply lower quality coal with high ash content to non-premium markets like India from its controversy-hit Carmichael coal and mine project in Australia’s Queensland state, according to a media report.
“The Carmichael mine will produce two coal products- product one, a low ash and moderate energy product most suitable for Asian premium markets, and product two, a high ash or lower energy product most suitable for non premium markets, in particular India,” ABC news quoted an extract from a sworn evidence to the Land Court in Queensland.
However, Adani Australia has clarified on its Facebook page today that in terms of quality of the coal it is almost 50 per cent better than used domestically. Last week in Brisbane, Adani Australia’s CEO Jeyakumar Janakara also told a forum that “the thing about Carmichael is, it will reduce the carbon footprint of existing [Indian] plants, which are using Indonesian or Indian coal today, by say 30 to 40 per cent”.
Australian Resources Minister Matt Canavan had earlier said, “..if Australia fails to supply India with coal from Queensland, they will get that coal elsewhere, which they’re doing right now”. He said that while the coal product was of lower quality as compared to Australian benchmarks for energy contents and ash contents but “certainly the coal India uses, and they’re a large coal producer in their own right, is much, much lower quality”.
