Townsville leaders in discussions with Indian company Adani – official!

The Queensland Townsville Bulletin newspaper has recently printed a good article about the ‘well-positioned’ city setting up a large FIFO workforce for the proposed thermal coal mine in the Galilee Basin, some 300+ kilometres west of the coastal hub.

One of the major arguments for Townsville being the best choice for a FIFO mining hub to service the Carmichael mine is that it is the only major port in Queensland able to accommodate B-triple trucks via the Port Access Road, the city is also perfectly placed to serve as the distribution centre for the mine.

Considering the Carmichael coal mine development features a massive rail link to the mine, the murmuring of B-triple trucks seems a bit of a wild card. It’s envisaged the trucks would be the best option to provide mining and logistics services out of Townsville to the proposed mine.

Carmichael coal production forecast by early 2017

Adani expects the project, which also includes a 360+km rail line and the expansion of Abbot Point`s coal terminal, to begin off-site works in September, with coal production forecast by early 2017.

This new development in the Adani Carmichael mine project comes after Dawson MP George Christensen said he wanted Mackay to be the FIFO hub for the mine.

Townsville Mayor Jenny Hill said she expected a significant amount of the workforce would be based in Townsville.

She went on record as saying, “I`ve had conversations with the company and they are very keen to operate.. in Townsville, but this is such a big project and there is no real need to squabble as there`s plenty of work for everyone in northern Queensland,”.

Herbert MP Ewen Jones said Townsville and Mackay needed to collaborate for the common good of the region to ensure the operation went ahead.

Adani assures under no uncertain terms Townsville would be a FIFO and supply hub

“I`ve had discussions with Adani executives and under no uncertain terms Townsville would be a hub, but we`ve got to get the thing started,” Jones said.

“It`s the port, our services economy, and the fact we are the largest regional city “� there`s a lot to like and we are less than 200km to Abbot point where they will be shipping the coal out.”

Townsville Airport chief operating officer Kevin Gill said the airport was already one of the country`s largest FIFO centres with an established network of carriers including Alliance Airlines, QantasLink and Regional Express.

He added further arguments for Townsville being chosen as the main centre because of the city`s affordability and liveability to support the mine in every way.

CEO of Adani, Jeyakumar Janakaraj said the source of Queensland mining jobs at the Carmichael mine would be spread throughout North Queensland.

Townsville Enterprise economic development general manager Tracey Lines said she believed that Townsville would be an attractive hub for Adani to source a sizeable portion of their workers from given its existing skilled mining-focused workforce and community support already in place for FIFO and Defence families.

Reference: FIFO hub Carmichael coal mine:Townsville Adani FIFO hub