mte holders pay day soon

http://www.couriermail.com.au/business/indias-population-forecast-means-it-will-look-to-australia-for-raw-materials-to-fill-consumer-demands/story-e6freqmx-1226187095796

HUGE demand for electricity in India is sparking a billion-dollar shopping spree in Queensland.

India's urban population is forecast to rise from 340 million to 590 million in the next 20 years and that will mean it will come looking to Australia for the raw materials to fill consumer demands.

The target is Queensland mining companies, particular the coalminers who can supply the booming Indian and Chinese consumers with the raw product that fires power stations.

Queensland's New Hope Coal is now expected to be the next $5 billion target of India with steel-making giant Tata believed to be at the head of the queue for the company.

It follows India's GVK paying $1.2 billion for the central Queensland coal assets of Gina Rinehart's Hancock Coal, and Adani buying Linc Energy's coal tenements for $500 million.

Clive Palmer's Waratah Coal also has key funding links with China and almost all of the next boom region, the Galilee Basin, in central Queensland has fallen to foreign interests.

Brisbane-based Macarthur Coal has just been sold to America's Peabody and Europe's AccelorMittal while Swiss-based Xstrata and London's Rio Tinto also have major coal assets.

BHP Billiton also has a Japanese partner, Mitsubishi, in its key coal assets and recently announced a $4 billion development of its Caval Ridge project near Moranbah.

"Our great coal industry would not be where it is today without foreign capital," Queensland Resources Council chief executive Michael Roche said. He said India needed to triple its coal imports over the next decade to meet electricity demand.

"It's just part of the long-term trend," Mr Roche said. "We don't need to have any fears about Indian interest in our coal. I would predict that in the next 10 years we will see India challenge Japan as our biggest customer."