FIRST INDIA-AUSTRALIA JOINT WORKING GROUP (JWG) ON “COAL AND MINES”

FIRST INDIA-AUSTRALIA JOINT WORKING GROUP (JWG) ON “COAL AND MINES”

Context:

As a precursor to the upcoming India-Australia Energy Dialogue scheduled to be held on 13th October 2021, the first Joint Working Group (JWG) meeting on “Coal and Mines” between India and Australia was held here on 24th Sep 2021 through Video conferencing.

Meeting Co-Chaired By:

• This was co-chaired by Shri Vinod Kumar Tiwari, Additional Secretary, Ministry of Coal, from the Indian side and by Mr Paul Trotman, Head of Resources Division from the Australian side.

Key Highlights of the Meeting:

• The discussions focused on Indian coal resources in the present and future scenario, critical and strategic minerals-demand and supply scenario & engagements with Australian counterpart, Coal Bed Methane, India Australia collaboration on Clean Coal Technology, Surface Coal Gasification, sharing of Technology deployed for fire quenching, Carbon Capture Utilization & Storage(CCUS) and Coal-Based Hydrogen.
• Avenues for Business to Business collaboration on coal technology, cooperation on skill development and training, transfer of technology, 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.