Gina Rinehart said on Sunday that she’s confident the GVK Group`s Alpha Coal and Rail project in the Galilee Basin of Queensland, in which she is a minority stakeholder, will get the go-ahead and receive the necessary environmental clearances from the Australian federal government by August.
GVK acquired a 79% stake each in the Alpha Coal and Alpha West Coal mines and 100% stake in Kevin`s Corner mines in October for $1.26 billion. Rinehart owns the remaining 21% stake in the Alpha Coal project.
GVK secured environmental approval for the project from the Queensland government, however the approval process was stalled by the federal government on June 5th because more information on the impact on the environment was required.
Project means infrastructure and mining jobs.
Rinehart said the Alpha project is very important to Australia. “. . . It means some revenue, it means more mining jobs.”�
The three coal mines together have estimated coal reserves of about 8 billion tonnes and a capacity of more than 80 million tonnes per annum when fully operational. GVK is also building a 495km rail line and a 60 mtpa port as part of the pit-to-port logistics solution with a total investment of $10 billion. This means a lot of job opportunities for skilled and semi-skilled workers who are looking for a career in mining.
Rinehart said she is open to raising her stake in the Alpha mine project if the need arises. “I would love to be in the project more. I am very happy to have higher investment and it`s most important to get this project off the ground”� she said.
