November 5, 2020 - Mining juggernaut Adani has unveiled its new name as Bravus Mining and Resources - after mistakenly believing the word 'bravus' was Latin for 'brave'.

The name change marked the Indian company's tenth year in Australia, as well as the significant progress they've made on Carmichael thermal coal mine in central Queensland, which may generate up to 10,000 jobs.

But various academics have since pointed out 'Bravus' has a much darker meaning, closely relating to the words 'villainous', 'crooked' and 'deformed'.

'We will continue to stand up and deliver for the good of our community, no matter how courageous it requires us to be, and Bravus, our new name, reflects this intent,' Bravus Mining & Resources CEO, David Boshoff said on Thursday.

Boshoff told the Australian Financial Review the word Bravus meant 'courageous' and denied the name change was due to the negativity associated with the term Adani.

'We believe it took a lot of courage to get where we are and we will stand up for what we believe in,' he said.

'If motivated by that [Adani being a toxic name] it would have made sense to change our name 18 months ago or earlier.'

However, Christopher Bishop from the Australian National University's Centre of Classical Studies said the mining company probably should have double-checked their new name before announcing it.

'They are wrong. It would have to be something like "fortis", for brave, if you are going for your classical,' Dr. Bishop told the Guardian.

He said 'bravus' was related to the medieval Latin word 'bravo' which meant a 'mercenary' or 'assassin'.

'You have "bravo" - meaning a mercenary, a sword for hire, a tough guy. Which is probably not what they want to associate with. The closest Adani could get is it could have meant "boldness",' he said.

The University of Melbourne's Tim Parkin also weighed in, and said the relations to 'bravus' that he found differed to the meaning Adani had.

'It tends to be used of someone who is villainous. A crook, or a bandit, or a cut-throat,' he said.

Bishop also suggested the word could be derived from 'pravus' which means depraved or crooked, as well as the Latin word 'barbarus' which means barbaric.

An Adani spokesperson said the name 'Bravus' had been derived from the words 'bold' and 'brave'.

It comes as Bravus' Carmichael mine in the state's Galilee Basin is set to export coal as early as next year.

The $2 billion project was approved in June 2019 and will allow for 10million tonnes of coal to be exported every year. The company also claims it will create up to 10,000 jobs.

But the mine has also become a Over the past decade environmental activists have worked long and hard to stop the mine from being approved, kick-starting the 'Stop Adani' campaign.

These groups believe the project will destroy Indigenous land and waters and will have detrimental effects on the already suffering Great Barrier Reef.

In February this year, Adani was fined $20,000 for giving the Queensland government false information about land clearing.

The company pleaded guilty to the offence after the state environment department charged it last year over clearing at the Carmichael mine site in 2018.

The case relates to information in Adani's 2017/2018 annual return for the central Queensland mine, with the department accusing the miner of failing to report a disturbance area of more than 5.8 hectares.

Countless protests over the mine have erupted across the country in recent years.

In August, 20 Aboriginal protesters blocked the main road to the coal mine in a bid to stop construction.

Meanwhile in April 2019, 400 Adani protesters swarmed the small town, much to the ire of locals.

Residents, who are mainly pleased about employment opportunities the mine will produce, refused to serve the activists at cafes and restaurants.

Famously at the end of 2017, thousands of protesters participated in 45 different rallies across Australia.

Around 1,500 people attended a protest on Bondi Beach, using their bodies to spell out '#StopAdani' on the sand.

A further 2,000 protesters packed a Melbourne park carrying placards which read 'Protect our Future'.

So far, the Carmichael mine has employed 1,500 people and created $1.5 billion worth of contracts.