You can’t keep a dumb idea down.
Just as it appeared that Adani’s $16 billion Carmichael coal mine was dead, Treasurer Joe Hockey has flagged that the project could receive a taxpayer-funded loan for a 388 kilometre rail line linking its mega mine in central Queensland to coal terminals at Abbot Point near the Great Barrier Reef. From The Canberra Times:
“One of the things they are looking at is how we can ensure that the railway line remains financially viable. I can’t give away too many details, but we are working away at that,” Mr Hockey told ABC radio on Monday.
Fairfax Media understands the government is considering whether the project could be assessed for a loan from a $5 billion northern Australia infrastructure scheme announced in this year’s budget…
However, the government has emphasised companies would have to demonstrate their projects would not be viable without taxpayer assistance…
“We are doing everything we can to help to get the Adani Carmichael mine open,” Mr Hockey said on Monday.
“We are working together to see what we can do to further encourage Adani to continue with the mining process.”
The thermal coal price is in the process of returning to pre-boom levels of around $40:
And the global coal glut is large and will only get larger as China switches from coal power and lowers the energy intensity of its growth.
And still the Government is considering spending taxpayers dollars to help fund a project that will very likely lose money, worsen the global coal supply glut, accelerate the closure of cheaper Australian coal mines (displacing other coal mining jobs), as well as drop Australian productivity, all in the name of Indian resource nationalism?
Has the Government completely lost its marbles?
If Adani wants coal, the world is swimming in cheap and cheerful stuff that is for sale. Buy that instead.
