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This the number of new jobs that Adani, and some politicians within the federal government, have claimed the mine will create.

Adani has projected that construction will generate A$203 million for Queensland (directly and indirectly), and production  will create more than A$270 million per year for the state economy.

10,000 new jobs

1,464 jobs

But this is the net number of new full-time equivalent jobs, both direct and indirect, that Adani's special witness, Jerome Fahrer, told the Queensland Land Court the mine would create, factoring in its construction, ongoing employment and job losses from other major projects.

a vast underground reservoir which spans most of Queensland and parts of NT, South Australia and northern NSW.

So what are the likely environmental impacts?

Around 200 small towns draw their water from the basin’s aquifers, with most taking an allotment of between 100-500 million litres of water per year.

And this is the number that appears on the approval documents on the Queensland Department of State Development's projects website.

The proposed site will include:

• 6 open-cut pits,

Adani has been granted unlimited volumes of water for 60 years from the

Great Artesian Basin,

And even given this, Adani’s water allocation is unlimited.

The Adani Carmichael mine site, and the connecting rail link, also intersect with several endangered and vulnerable species.

The endangered black-throated finch has already lost 80% of its habitat, mainly thanks to agriculture. A significant portion of its remaining habitat is within the bounds of the Carmichael mine site. The mine will remove the best remaining habitat, and fragment the good quality habitat that remains.

The estimate for the Adani Carmichael mine’s water usage from the basin is 12 billion litres per year.

towards which the federal government has pledged a loan of $1 billion. Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk has promised to veto the loan, but some experts say it may go ahead anyway.

The ornamental snake is listed as vulnerable and was the subject of a court case that saw the Federal Court overturn the mine’s approval in 2015. The then federal environment minister, Greg Hunt, and the Queensland government reapproved it later that year after further consultation and investigation.

So what about the actual coal?

The vulnerable squatter pigeon’s habitat is much larger, but the entire Carmichael mine site is within its territory.

Shipping the coal to the international market also requires a huge expansion of the Abbot Point Coal Terminal (which is also owned by Adani).

(or 13 Olympic swimming pools per day)

Adani says the mine will produce 2.3 billion tonnes of coal over 60 years, and 60 million tonnes a year at peak production.

Local housing and an airport will also be needed.

The waxy cabbage palm is a vulnerable species of palm found exclusively in the area that surrounds the Carmichael mine site.

This means dredging 1.1 million cubic metres of the seabed and dumping it near the Caley Valley Wetlands.

It will produce two kinds of coal:

The next highest user is the Olympic Dam copper and uranium mine in South Australia, at 10 billion litres per year.

When burned, that coal will generate greenhouse gases equivalent to 4.49 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide.

The yakka skink is another vulnerable species that was part of the court case that saw Adani’s mine approval briefly overturned in 2015. The mine and connecting rail are directly within its habitat.

But the environmental impacts aren’t limited to the site of the mine.

And while the final approval requires Adani to provide offsets for the species displaced – allocating land and strategies to address the loss of habitat – an analysis of the Adani offsets has described them as "completely inadequate".

Adani is expected to pay A$5.5 billion in royalties and taxes in the first 10 years. While the government has ruled out a royalties holiday, it has discussed allowing Adani to defer royalty payments for the first five years, after which they must be paid in full (and with interest).

Stretching for roughly 50km, it will be one of the largest mines in the world.

Earlier plans to dump the dredge spoil within the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park have been cancelled.

Finish

• and a 189km rail connection,

It’s 160 km away.

For comparison, the estimated total amount of carbon dioxide released by fossil fuels in 2017 globally will be 37 billion tonnes.

But the dredging itself will reduce water quality and increase the likelihood of coral disease. Sediment from dredging also smothers and cuts light to coral reefs, which they require for photosynthesis.

And definitely the largest in Australia.

High quality, low ash coal for the Chinese market

The closest town, Clermont, has a population of just 3,031 people.

• 5 underground mines,

So how many jobs will the project create?

+

• 5 infrastructure areas, 

Up to 6395 jobs

• an onsite coal processing plant,

Low quality, higher polluting coal for the Indian market

This is the site of the proposed Adani Carmichael Coal Mine and its railway

But what’s the payoff for all of this impact?

It’s difficult to say if the mine will actually be profitable. Obviously Adani thinks it will be, but experts have raised doubts and the ABC has reported that those profits may be shifted offshore.

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