After several years of campaign and opposition by environmental activists against it, the Adani group plans to ship the first coal cargo from its controversial Carmichael mine project in Australia’s Queensland province.

"The first shipment of high-quality coal from the Carmichael mine is being assembled at the North Queensland Export Terminal in Bowen ready for export as planned," a spokesperson for Adani's Australian subsidiary Bravus Mining & Resources said in a statement, reports The Economic Times.

Adani group, the largest private thermal power producer in India, has a number of coal-fired power plants, like the one producing 4,620 MW power in Gujarat’s Mundra. Under the ‘pit-to-plug’ strategy, these power plants are to be fed with coal extracted from the Carmichael mine through a rail and port link.

The Adani Group had bought the coal tenement in 2010 from Australian company Linc Energy in a cash and royalty deal worth $2.7 billion, the largest single mine investment by an Indian firm in the continent-sized country. But even as it gets down to work, the Adani Group continues to face opposition from the various left-wing groups.

Due to continuous opposition, Adani has already decreased the 60 million tonnes a year plan for the mine to 10 million tonnes a year in 2018.