The future of Adani's proposed multibillion-dollar Carmichael coal mine remains under a cloud even after Queensland premier Annastacia Palaszczuk declared her cabinet had secured a late agreement on the royalty regime it would offer the miner.
A snap cabinet meeting called late on Friday unanimously agreed Adani would pay all royalties, the premier said in a statement. Details of the new stance - which would apply to policies in the Galilee and Surat Basins and the North West Minerals Province - would be released in "due course".
"There will be no royalty holiday for the Adani Carmichael mine," Ms Palaszczuk said.
The decision is set to further antagonise the Indian-owned miner after the government split on how much support to offer the mine. Adani said it would analyse the details of the government's arrangements.
"Adani confirms again that it will pay every cent of royalties to the state as was always the case," the company said in a statement, according to AAP.
Queensland's Treasury was understood to have modelled the cost of as many as 15 royalty options. Among them was capping annual royalties to a few million dollars for a few years, with later payments to be ramped up.
How big?
While routinely billed as a 60-million-tonne-a-year megamine for the Galilee Basin costing Adani more than $16 billion - including in Friday's announcement by the premier - doubts remain within the government about its eventual size.
"They want to have a hole in the ground ... they are after a footprint," one senior source told Fairfax before the late-Friday announcement. "No one is talking about production of more than 25 million tonnes a year."
Divisions within the government have resulted in regular leaks, including one that raised the prospect of a "royalties holiday" worth $320 million stretched over almost four decades to secure project approval from Adani.
"Adani's ambit claim was to pay nothing for the first 10 years," the source said, adding the terms of any agreement should be made public so taxpayers can tell if Labor had kept its pre-election promise not to give the mine handouts.
The company this week said it was deferring a final decision until Brisbane settled its royalties plan.
Climate and jobs
Opponents say the mine's billionaire owners should get no taxpayer aid, not least because the project will potentially open up a huge new coal province and quicken global warming.
They say any job gains must be measured against thousands at risk in the tourism industry - a sector already threatened by the death of half the corals of the Great Barrier Reef in the unprecedented back-to-back bleaching over the past two summers alone.
Matt Canavan, the federal Resources Minister, this week said wrangling within the state government led by Annastacia Palaszczuk was "remarkable and embarrassing".
Giving miners support had "happened in the past when we've opened up new coal basins", he told ABC Radio. If the project lasted 60 years, it could generate $6 billion for the state while easing unemployment.
Ron Watson, a spokesman for Adani, said it was "laughable" to claim the company had sought to avoid paying royalties for a decade.
He said the 25-million-tonne a year output remained the goal of "phase one" of the project, with plans to expand eventually to 60 million tonnes.
Sarah Henderson, a federal Victorian Liberal MP, an opponent of the mine, raised doubts about Adani's plans last month.
"I am advised that the project has now been significantly scaled back and involves just an open-cut mine, and no underground collieries," Ms Henderson said in a letter to activist group GetUp. "I understand Adani's first-stage commitment will see it produce five to 10 [million tonnes per annum] of coal."
'Bizarre' absence
Adani Enterprises this week released annual results in India but made no mention of the mine. Tim Buckley, a former Citigroup analyst and coal critic, said its absence was "bizarre given it represents 50 per cent of the net book value" of the firm's equity.
State support "helps get the mini-mine to fruition", Mr Buckley said.
Even if the mine secured a financial close for annual output of 25 million tonnes - which he described as "virtually impossible" - that tonnage would never justify building the 388-kilometre rail link to the nearest port at Abbot Point, he said.
Should Adani accept the royalties package, the onus will shift to Canberra. Support for the mine includes the possible provision of a $1 billion loan by the Northern Australian Infrastructure Facility to fund the railway, assistance that federal Labor opposes.
With AAP
