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Adani's Giant Australian Coal Mine Takes Hit as Rail Plan Axed

Adani Enterprises Ltd. can’t catch a break.

Adani's Giant Australian Coal Mine Takes Hit as Rail Plan Axed
Dump trucks operate in an open pit at a coal mine near Singleton, Australia (Photographer: Brendon Thorne/Bloomberg)

(Bloomberg) -- Adani Enterprises Ltd. can’t catch a break.

The Indian conglomerate trying to build one of the world’s largest coal mines has already had its own funding bid for a rail line stymied by the Queensland state government. Now, a funding proposal for another line that could carry its coal to the coast for export has been canned.

Adani's Giant Australian Coal Mine Takes Hit as Rail Plan Axed

Rail operator Aurizon Holdings Ltd., which hoped to build a common-user rail link to open up the thermal coal-rich Galilee Basin, said Friday it was withdrawing its application because it hadn’t locked in any contracts with customers.

The route may have solved a missing link for Adani as it works out how to move coal from its planned Carmichael mine to its Abbot Point terminal on the coast. The company is racing to find as much as A$3 billion ($2.3 billion) in debt financing to kickstart the mine project by a March deadline.

To contact the reporter on this story: Perry Williams in Sydney at pwilliams113@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Ramsey Al-Rikabi at ralrikabi@bloomberg.net, Edward Johnson

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