India, Australia hold first Joint Working Group meet on coal, mines

New Delhi: As a precursor to the upcoming India-Australia Energy Dialogue scheduled to be held next month, the first Joint Working Group (JWG) meeting on coal and mines between both countries was held through video conferencing. The meeting, which was held on Thursday, was co-chaired by Coal Additional Secretary Vinod Kumar Tiwari from the Indian side and by Paul Trotman, Head of Resources Division from the Australian side.

In his opening remarks, Tiwari provided an overview of the coal sector in India and presented an emerging scenario for the future, according to a statement by the coal ministry.

He highlighted the priority areas to be included for possible collaborations in coal and mining sectors in both countries.

The discussions focused on Indian coal resources in the present and future scenario, critical and strategic minerals-demand and supply scenario and engagements with Australian counterpart, India Australia collaboration on Clean Coal Technology, Surface Coal Gasification, Coal Bed Methane, sharing of technology deployed for fire quenching, coal-based hydrogen, Carbon Capture Utilisation and Storage (CCUS).

Avenues for Business to Business collaboration on coal technology, transfer of technology, cooperation on skill development and training, issues related to coking coal import from Australia were discussed.

Both sides discussed sharing their expertise on these issues for any possible future collaboration and agreed that the discussions would also be carried forward beyond the confines of this forum.

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