The Ross River in Townsville, the closest city to where the facility will be built. Source : Wikimedia commons (Used under Creative Commons)
A critical minerals demonstration facility, the first of its kind in Australia, will be built in Townsville.
The facility cost $75 million, which is more than seven times the original investment placed in it, and will be located at the Cleveland Bay Industrial Park.
The facility will be located between the Sun Metals zinc refinery, and the Glencore Copper refinery.
Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said Queensland was the best location for the facility.
“Queensland has the sunshine and wind above the ground combined with the critical minerals below the ground to make batteries and renewables with renewable energy.” Ms Palaszczuk said.
“After working with prospective users, universities, and research centres, the facility will not only be able to process vanadium, a key component of large-scale batteries, but it will be expanded allowing for a range of critical minerals like cobalt and rare earth elements to be processed.
“This facility will prove up the commerciality of critical minerals in Queensland creating jobs not just in mining but in processing and manufacturing.
“Critical minerals are needed to build the SuperGrid, batteries, and the wind, and solar farms under the Queensland Energy and Jobs Plan.” She said.
Ms Palaszczuk said North Queensland is “at the centre of the clean energy industrial revolution.”
Minister for Resources Scott Stewart said there was a lot of potential for the facility in North Queensland, particularly in vanadium mining.
“Global demand for vanadium in batteries and high-quality steel is expected to outpace supply before the end of the decade.” Mr Stewart said.
“Queensland has world class, highly economic deposits of vanadium located in accessible marine shale.
“Because they hold their charge in a liquid form, vanadium redox batteries can be built to a much bigger scale, powering larger communities for longer.
“Vanadium has the potential to be the Eureka moment for North Queensland.” He said.
Mr Stewart said the facility is already garnering attention from companies to use it once it is opened.
The facility is a small part of a $150 million commitment that was announced in the 2022-2023 State Budget update in December 2022.
The commitment is to develop common user infrastructure to support the development, extraction, and production of critical minerals for the state.
The Queensland Investment Corporation manages the Critical Minerals Investment Fund, which will aid in supporting businesses in the production of batteries and advance materials using critical minerals mined in Queensland.
The facility will overall support the delivery of the $62 billion Queensland Energy and Jobs Plan, and will help shift Queensland’s energy system towards a more renewable foundation.
