Nickel refinery to play material role

A NICKEL refinery planned for Townsville could supply some of the raw material needed at the battery plant.

Queensland Pacific Metals is planning to build a refinery near Bluewater to produce nickel, cobalt, hematite, alumina and magnesium oxide.

A scoping study has already identified the potential of the project which would import ore into the Port of Townsville from New Caledonia.

In February, Pure Minerals announced it would acquire Queensland Pacific Metals.

In a presentation in Perth at the Minerals & Investment Week, Pure Minerals presented details about the Townsville battery metals refinery.

The presentation said Townsville was the ideal location for the processing plant for a number of reasons including the fact Imperium3 was planning to build a battery factory in the city.

QPM managing director John Downie said they were pleased at the progress made in the short period of time since Pure Minerals notified of its intention to acquire Queensland Pacific Metals.

“The funding provided by (Pure Minerals) has been instrumental in ensuring (Queensland Pacific Metals) remains on track with its progress towards becoming a producer of battery materials for the (electric vehicle) sector,” Mr Downie said.