Townsville Enterprise welcomes the announcement from the State Government today, set to deliver a $75m critical minerals demonstration facility at the Cleveland Bay Industrial Park.
An Australian-first
Today's announcement unlocks Townsville North Queensland's powerhouse potential to become one of the only cities in the world to have capacity to process and manufacture all battery material types. This forms the pathway to position Townsville as the epicentre for battery production into the future.
Already we see the likes of Sun Metals Zinc and Glencore’s Copper refinery establishing itself as a world-leading green industrial precinct; and Queensland Pacific Metals complimenting the industrial capacity with nickel and cobalt products as part of their recently announced $2bn metals refinery at Lansdown.
The investment announced today is widening our processing capabilities to rare earths such as vanadium and others. The Northwest Mineral Province is home to a large amount of rare earths, and with the existing supply chain to Townsville and the extensive skills and knowledge we have in our region, this investment is a major boost for Townsville’s position as the world-leading minerals processing hub.
We acknowledge and congratulate Scott Stewart, Member for Townsville and Minister for Resources, to ensure this important investment was secured for Townsville North Queensland.
Transmission remains the missing link
The region's unique ability to bring world-leading green power capacity and critical mineral tenements co-located together is unparalleled, but the true potential to fast-track the decarbonisation of Australia remains unanswered until investment is assured for the transmission lines to deliver this energy to the grid.
CopperString is the most advanced electricity project in the country, and the future of Australia deserves investment into transmission lines now.
