ZURICH, March 12 (Reuters) - Siemens SIEGn.DE faces renewed pressure from protesters in Australia demanding the German engineering company quit a mega mining project that has breached environmental protection rules.
Adani Enterprises ADEL.NS has broken rules on four occasions and has been handed two fines totaling 25,920 Australian dollars ($20,000) since contracting Siemens to work on its Carmichael coal and rail project, a group called SumOfUs said.
Adani's Australian unit has described the breaches as minor and said it has addressed them.
The Queensland mine - which will extract 10 million tons of coal per year - has provoked controversy in Australia at a time when the coal industry is under scrutiny for its high levels of greenhouse gas emissions linked to global warming.
SumOfUs called on Siemens to cancel its contract with Adani and more than 121,000 people have signed a petition demanding Siemens CEO Roland Busch take action.
SumOfUs is a non-profit consumer group registered in the United States which runs online campaigns aimed at curbing the power of companies.
Protests took place at Siemens's shareholder meeting in 2020, and Busch's predecessor Joe Kaeser last year said Siemens could quit the contract if "our customer violates the very stringent environmental obligations".
Siemens said after closely examining the complaints it would remain involved in a 18 million euro deal to supply signaling systems for a rail link between the mine and a port.
The company's review has "indicated that the matter leading to the issuance of the notice was procedural and has been appropriately remedied," a Siemens spokesman said.
Bravus Mining and Resources, the name for Adani's unit in Australia, said the breaches related to two areas outside the marked survey area being accidentally cleared. The affected land was slightly smaller than a tennis court, it said.
The other breaches, concerned a pre-clearance survey that had expired by 24 days, and an updated species management plan that had not been submitted within a required three-month window.
"Environmental activists have referred to matters that we self-reported in 2019 and 2020. These matters have already been addressed," a Bravus spokeswoman said.
($1 = 1.2900 Australian dollars)