Hyderabad-based GVK group on Thursday said it had won environmental permit for its Alpha coal project in Australia to help it get closer to starting work on a long-delayed $10 billion mine, rail and port project.
GVK Hancock, a 79:21 joint venture between GVK and Australian billionaire Gina Rinehart’s Hancock Prospecting, now needs to get coal rail operator Aurizon Holdings onboard and sign coal sales agreement to being work on the project.
“After over six years of comprehensive environmental assessments and detailed planning, GVK Hancock has been granted an Environmental Authority (Clearance) for its Alpha Coal Project in the Galilee Basin in Central Queensland,” the company said in a statement. GVK’s Alpha Coal Mine is located in the Galilee Basin with the first coal lot expected to be extracted by 2016. When fully commissioned, the mine will produce 32 million tonnes of thermal a year of low ash, low sulphur coal for export to the Asian market. The Land Court of Queensland in Australia had earlier granted conditional clearance to the Alpha Coal Mine project.
“This is one of the most significant milestones in the development of our Galilee Basin coal projects till date which will create one of the most remarkable pieces of regional and economic developments Queensland has seen for decades,” GVK Reddy, founder Chairman of GVK, said. “This milestone takes us another step closer towards commencing our proposed Alpha mine, which will create around 4,000 jobs during its three-year construction, GVK Vice Chairman G. V. Sanjay Reddy said in the statement.
