Adani today said its 21.7 billion dollar coal mine project in Australia has finally received authorisation by traditional land owners, which the Indian mining giant termed was a “clear mandate” that the community supports the venture, which is the world’s largest.
The Indian energy giant said that “W&J (Wangan and Jagalingou) community voted overwhelmingly today at a properly convened, independently-chaired meeting in accordance with established statutory process to deliver intergenerational opportunities to their communities and their children, and grandchildren”.
The company said that today’s decision was indication that the traditional owners — the Birriah, Juru and Jangga traditional owners — were determined to work with Adani in building sustainable and ongoing partnerships that see the benefits of these projects are shared by all in the broader community.
However, the anti-Adani group of W&J representatives slammed the “sham meeting” and said it was funded by Adani.
They added that they will challenge Adani’s “phoney” land use deal in the Federal Court.
Confident that the project in Queensland was on the right track, Adani Mining Australia CEO Jeyakumar Janakaraj said that the company finally received authorisation for Indigenous land use agreement (ILUA) by the traditional owners of Queensland.
“This is an extremely positive development as it has reconfirmed that Adani has been working very closely with W&J (Wangan and Jagalingou) and the entire community supports the project. The level of support which has been shown in the voting by the community owners has given us lot of confidence,” Janakraj said, adding that this proved that there was a lot of support for energy security in India.
He further said that the meeting was the largest-ever authorisation meeting of the W&J, with over 300 attendees, organised by the community itself as per the legal framework.
However, there were still some minority groups present within the community.
“It is a clear mandate and we are very happy that the community has supported the Adani project,” Janakaraj said. “We are taking all the steps in the right direction.”
It said that the decision reflected a commitment to work with Adani to ensure that the W&J people benefit from the jobs and economic opportunities that will flow from the construction and operation of the mine at Carmichael — just as communities such as Clermont, Charters Towers, Townsville, Mackay, Rockhampton and Bowen will enjoy the benefits of Adani’s mine, rail and port projects from proceeding.
On Wednesday, W&J representative group said it has filed an interlocutory application in the Federal Court of Australia challenging the leases granted to the controversy-hit venture in Queensland’s Galilee Basin.
