Indian firm plans largest investment in Australia

India's Adani Group is planning to establish Queensland's biggest coal mine in the state's central region, with mine life of more than 100 years, local media reported on Tuesday. The Adani Group has proposed to build a new open-cut and underground mine in the Galilee Basin in central Queensland. The cost of mine infrastructure, rail and port is expected to be more than 6 billion AU dollars (6.43 billion U.S. dollars), with total output of 60 million tones of coal a year, according to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) reports. If the Carmichael Coal Project proceeds, Adani said it would be the largest investment by an Indian company in Australia. The company is also planning to build a new town to deal with the Carmichael mine's remote location. Adani said it would also build a runway for fly-in fly-out ( FIFO) workers, along with new railway and port facilities at either Abbot Point or Hay Point. It said export coal from the project would predominantly service the Indian domestic power market. Adani officials are talking to the Federal Government about special visas to fill jobs with overseas workers, the ABC reported. Queensland Mining Minister Stirling Hinchliffe said the Queensland government expected the company to use locally-sourced labor. Hinchliffe said the project was still in its early stages. "It is a massive project, a massive development - there is a long way to go in terms of regulatory and environmental approvals, " he said.