PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Indian major Adani has endeared itself to Queensland communities after vowing to source the workforce for its proposed A$21.7-billion Carmichael coal and rail project from regional Queensland, and to not use foreign workers on 457 visas.

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said Adani had also committed to establish all its project offices in regional Queensland.

“The coal will be mined in regional Queensland by regional Queenslanders,” Palaszczuk said.

“I have always made it clear: the jobs from the Carmichael coal project are for Queenslanders. I am pleased Adani has committed to do just that. Importantly, Adani have committed to up to 600 new jobs in the next preconstruction phase of the project’s development and locations for staff.”

Minister for State Development and Minister for Natural Resources and Mines Dr Anthony Lynham said the development would be an economic shot in the arm for businesses across the state.

"The effects of this project will ripple through our regional economies, whether it’s the mining engineering businesses, the construction materials suppliers, the aircraft maintenance crews or the caterers feeding the work crews,” he said.

“The resources sector provides A$2-billion annually in royalties to fund our hospitals and schools: the Carmichael ripple effect will be felt state-wide.”

The Queensland Resources Council (QRC) has welcomed Adani’s decision. However, CEO Ian Macfarlane has warned that the Carmichael project still has a way to go to completion, thanks to legal battles still faced by the Indian major.

“The green activists are responsible for holding up this project and, therefore, taking away jobs and revenue from the people of this state. While those very activists enjoy the everyday luxuries such as electricity that we take for granted, they are preventing those living in India from enjoying the same standard of living,” Macfarlane said.

“The Adani project still faces multiple court cases from the green activists, most of who reside in inner-city suburbs, hundreds or thousands of kilometres from the project. This is why the QRC has called on both levels of governments to overhaul the loopholes in the current legislation that enables green activists to repeatedly hold up projects in court.”

The project recently secured its final state and federal government approval, after the Queensland Coordinator-General approved an application for the project’s rail line into Abbot Point.

The proposed Carmichael project will comprise an opencut and underground mine, running for a period of 90 years and producing an average 60-million tonnes a year of thermal coal.

The Carmichael coal, railway and port project includes building Australia’s largest thermal coal mine, linked by a new 388 km standard gauge rail line to a new terminal at Abbot Point port near Bowen.