COAL will be around “for a long time yet” according to BHP chief executive Mike Henry as Labor fast-tracks final approval of a massive new coal mine in central Queensland.
Mr Henry, whose company mines both metallurgical and thermal coal, confirmed this week that BHP was committed to coal and that he expected strong ongoing demand.
“You’ve got coal for steelmaking and coal for power generation,” he said.
AGREEMENT
Mr Henry said thermal coal would be needed “for a long time yet” especially given the rise of technologies such as carbon capture and storage.
BHP’s backing came in the same week Queensland’s Labor government formally agreed terms for a $2b coal mine in regional Queensland. The State’s Carmichael mine is expected to produce 10 million tonnes of coal per year.
A spokesman for the mine’s operator, Adani, confirmed this week that agreement had been finalised.
“We can confirm we have agreed to terms of royalties and Adani has signed the agreement,” the spokesman said.
Queensland Treasurer Cameron Dick also confirmed the government had signed the agreement yesterday.
The Carmichael mine – 700km+ northwest of Brisbane – had been delayed for years by Labor’s Left-wing green faction. Their noisy protests, however, quickly became irrelevant after the delays became an election issue.
RUCTIONS
Labor Party elder and former Federal Environment Minister Graham Richardson declared climate change politics dead earlier this year as the Party moved to offload its anti-worker image.
Mr Richardson said a shift away from renewable energy was a post-COVID “fact” – regardless of the ructions it would cause within Labor.
“We’ve got real problems now and, if you’ll pardon the pun, global warming goes on the back burner for some time now,” he said.
A return to sensible base-load energy generation is paving the way for Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s plan to revitalise Australia’s sagging manufacturing base.
Areas he has identified as important for securing national sovereignty objectives include resource technology, food & beverages, medical products, recycling & clean energy as well as defence and space.
Mr Morrison plans to invest heavily in providing a framework to kickstart a rapid return to Australian manufacturing including “affordable and reliable energy, tax policy, industrial relations as well as training and skills development”.
“Too often in the past industry policy has ignored these foundational elements in the vain hope that subsidies could make up for broader deficiencies,” he said.
Further details of the Prime Ministers manufacturing plans are expected to be released in next week’s federal budget.PC
It will be a black day when they stop mining coal.
The impoverished blancmange that is the Qld. Labor Party has made some strategic rapid responses just in time for the Qld. election, agreements that should have gone through long ago! Amazing!
I hope the electorate will not forget P. P’s illegal border closures, leading up to her well-exhibited and shocking cruelty and her breathtakingly bizarre punishment of entire sectors of her own business populace! All completely unnecessary!
And wonderful! Richo is now on the right (right) track and ScoMo must now oversee the very, very rapid implementation of his robust plans to Make Australia Great.