Shine Energy listed Glencore as 'project partner' in Collinsville power station proposal

The multinational mining giant Glencore was listed as a “project partner” on documents used by the proponent of a coal-fired power station at Collinsville in north Queensland to seek federal funding, Guardian Australia can reveal.

The tiny company proposing the $2bn power generator, Shine Energy, was awarded a $3.3m federal grant for a feasibility study this year.

The company has no energy sector experience and has never completed a project.

 Shine’s lack of relevant credentials has raised significant questions about whether the company – involving three Birriah traditional owners – is being assisted or pushed forward by separate business or political interests that would indirectly benefit from the power station’s construction.

Shine’s power station proposal has vocal political support among pro-coal Nationals, who used it to attack Labor in central and north Queensland seats at the 2019 federal election.

It also has the support of Glencore, Australia’s largest coal producer, and the operator of the nearby Collinsville mine.

The Swiss conglomerate has long complained that its energy-intensive businesses – particularly the Townsville-based copper refinery CRL – pay too much for power.

In March last year, after Shine Energy was first publicly named as the proponent of the Collinsville plant, its directors and staff posed for publicity photographs at the CRL refinery, wearing CRL-branded hi-vis.

Guardian Australia has seen documentation submitted by Shine Energy to the federal government in January 2019, seeking support from the Underwriting New Generation Investment (Ungi) program.

On the cover page of Shine’s registration of interest for the Ungi program, it named Glencore Coal Assets Australia as a project partner.

The revelation is expected to intensify calls for an inquiry into the decision to subsequently award Shine a different grant to conduct a feasibility study.

At the same time Glencore was listed as a partner of the Collinsville project, the company was secretly bankrolling a campaign – nicknamed Project Caesar – that included messaging designed to promote the construction of more modern coal-fired power stations in Australia.

Glencore stresses that it has no financial interest or ongoing involvement in the Collinsville project. But it would not address specific questions about why its Australian coal division would be listed as a project partner, instead referring Guardian Australia to earlier statements.

“Glencore supports the development of a bankable feasibility study for the project,” it said in March 2019.

“As an energy intensive user, we recognise that affordable and reliable baseload electricity is critical to our metals and coal operations in north and central Queensland, but also to the entire region.”

Glencore has said it would consider both supplying coal to and purchasing power from the proposed Collinsville plant.

The company says it provided project management and governance advice “at a very early stage in their planning” but has not been involved since.

Shine Energy’s proposal did not ultimately make a shortlist for funding from the Ungi program. Instead, in the middle of the federal election campaign, the government established a new scheme – the Supporting Reliable Energy Infrastructure (SREI) program – to back specific projects in central and north Queensland, including the Collinsville plant.

Guardian Australia has previously revealed Shine Energy was asked to apply for its feasibility study grant in February, two days after being publicly announced as a recipient.

When asked about the 2019 Shine Energy Ungi application naming Glencore as a project partner, a spokesman for the energy minister, Angus Taylor, said the Ungi and SREI programs “are separate processes”.

Taylor’s office said the objective of the grant was “to determine the viability of a new … coal-fired power station that would assist customers in north and central Queensland”.

He did not address specific questions about whether the government had discussed the project with Glencore, or whether it was appropriate for taxpayers to financially support a project connected to the multinational.

The Queensland LNP’s energy spokesman, Michael Hart, told a forum last week that the Collinsville project was backed by “big mining companies” in a bid to obtain cheaper power.

Guardian Australia understands Shine’s initial connection to Glencore was via an associated entity, Indigenous labour hire and group training venture Gurijala Services.

Gurijala and Shine are wholly-owned by the same company, Black Cockatoo Holdings.

On its website, Gurijala identifies “proud partners” Glencore and WSP, the Canadian services firm that completed the initial design and business case for the coal generator.

Ashley Dodd, Shine’s chief executive, said in a text message that Glencore, or any other mining entity, had “no commercial interest in Shine Energy”.

Dodd also said WSP had not worked pro bono on the Shine proposal. But he did not respond to a series of subsequent questions, asking why Glencore was listed as a project partner, and who had paid WSP to complete the work, given Shine had never undertaken a project.

WSP recently removed references to the project from its website, and declined to answer any questions about its involvement.

Shine’s website says it “works with” councils, governments and businesses on energy projects. The website lists four sample projects. But Guardian Australia has confirmed Shine was not involved in any of the listed projects – each was completed by an unrelated entity prior to Shine being registered.