SHORE UP OUR CITY’S FUTURE
Hill’s campaign for investment in hub
THE development of an environmentally sustainable advanced manufacturing hub at Lansdown has been decades in the planning but the investment required to make it a landing pad for industry is needed now, Mayor Jenny Hill says.
Cr Hill was commenting on Thursday at a Townsville Bulletin Business Breakfast where proponents outlined their plans for energy and minerals processing developments at the Lansdown Eco-industrial Precinct about 40km south of Townsville.
The developments, which will require investments of more than $2bn by the proponents, have the potential to create more than 5000 jobs over the next two to three years.
Edify Energy, Queensland Pacific Metals and Imperium3 Townsville want to join DriveIt NQ, which is already building a driver education and motorsport facility.
Edify Energy plans to build a hydrogen electrolyser plant and Majors Creek solar and battery storage power station; Queensland Pacific Metals proposes a battery feedstock refinery producing nickel, cobalt, alumina, iron and magnesium; and Imperium3 wants to develop a lithium-ion battery cell manufacturing facility.
Townsville City Council finalised the rezoning of the former rural land to high-impact industrial use last year and in a public tender process attracted Edify Energy and QPM to join Drive-it NQ and Imperium3.
Cr Hill told the breakfast the journey to develop Lansdown began 20 years ago.
The development of the Sun Metals zinc refinery at Stuart, which started production in 2000, had highlighted a shortage of industrial land, she said.
Cr Hill said it had been the government’s Department of State Development which raised the prospect of the council securing land for a future industrial precinct at Lansdown when the then Howard government put the former CSIRO research station on the market for sale.
She said the council was able to set aside a portion of earnings from land holdings at Douglas to acquire the 2200ha holdings.
Cr Hill said events now taking place presented the opportunity to capitalise investment.
“We are seeing a shift towards more modern, innovative and sustainable technologies. As leaders of the city we must be behind the push to evolve or we will risk getting left behind,” Cr Hill said.
“The Lansdown Eco-industrial Precinct is an opportunity to kickstart advanced manufacturing, not just in Townsville, but North Queensland.
“As leaders we can’t waste any more time. We need to reon this ally push and step up. Advanced manufacturing is the opportunity for us to reshape what Townsville is.”
She said the precinct was strategically located to attract industry.
There was access to road and rail, it was close to the port and adjacent to the Moranbah gas pipeline, it was near the Woodstock electricity substation and could have access to raw water from the Haughton pipeline.
But it needed investment to provide these services.
“We want everyone who goes into this precinct to have access to low-cost utilities, power and water,” Cr Hill said.
“I’m confident in saying that this development will pay dividends not just now but into the future for our community.
“We want to show the world that we can develop in this country an environmentally sustainable advanced manufacturing technology and processing hub.”
She said the state government had provided planning and funding support, while deputy mayor Mark Molachino had joined a delegation to Canberra last week to pitch for $50m from the federal government to develop the precinct as a landing pad for advanced manufacturing.
“Everything is there for proponents, they just need to bring their business to Townsville,” Cr Hill said.
“This precinct has the potential to create jobs and skill up a new generation of workers.
“We now.” need this funding
TOWNSVILLE is well placed to capitalise on a quantum shift to sustainable energy but governments need to do more to harness the opportunities, hydrogen and battery project proponents say.
Representatives of three major projects gathered in the city on Thursday to outline their plans at a packed Townsville Bulletin Business Breakfast.
Edify Energy, Queensland Pacific Metals and Imperium3 Townsville are all lining up to develop factories in the Lansdown Eco-industrial Precinct about 40km south of the city.
The CEO of Edify Energy, James Cook University graduate John Cole, said Townsville and Lansdown were uniquely placed but that it was also “ours to lose”.
“Governments have been doing a lot … but if, as a nation, we are going to harness this and become a true superpower of energy, then we are going to need to do more than we have done to date,” Mr Cole said.
“This is an opportunity staring the country in the face. We need to seize this opportunity.”
Edify is Australia’s largest large-scale solar developer and has committed to about 130ha of land in the precinct to develop a hydrogen electrolyser plant.
It has approval to develop a solar and battery storage power station at nearby Majors Creek.
Mr Cole said car manufacturers were calling an end to the production of internal combustion engines by 2030 and energydependent nations like Japan and Korea were “desperate” to obtain hydrogen fuel.
“The amount of inbound inquiries we have received since the start of this year is remarkable. I believe that Northern Australia has a regional advantage over southern Australia,” Mr Cole said.
The CEO of Queensland Pacific Metals, Stephen Grocott, said they too had the attention of big players like the world’s b biggest battery manufacturer, LG Chem.
“We have two or three discussions with t them every week,” Mr Grocott said.
“They are a significant potential partn ner. They are undergoing their investigati tions at the moment. That is a very big v vote of confidence in what was only a very small company not so long ago.”
Queensland Pacific Metals has committed to 289ha in Lansdown to develop a battery feedstocks refinery complex.
The development uses a step-change, Australian-designed technology which results in zero water discharge and, potentially, zero solids discharge, without the need for tailings dams to produce nickel, cobalt, alumina, iron and magnesium.
Mr Grocott said developing a new hitech resources project in Australia was tough and they needed help but they had the right technology, the right location and the right timing.
The world was hungry for the nickel and cobalt needed for batteries, he said.
Demand from Tesla alone would require the construction of 100 of the plants they wanted to build in Townsville.
“There are trillions of dollars worth of battery giga factories going up in the world and you’d be lucky if 20 per cent of them have got their nickel supply chain sorted out,” Mr Grocott said.
But Imperium3 Townsville is one firm developing battery manufacturing technology which will not rely on nickel or cobalt.
Imperium3 has committed to 186ha in Lansdown to build a lithium-ion battery cell manufacturing facility.
It is currently optimising proprietary electrochemistry, cell design and production line facilities in the United States.
Speaking from New York, Imperium3 New York chairman Shailesh Upreti said they were eliminating some of the toxic and expensive components needed in battery manufacturing and were also achieving breakthroughs in battery charging times.
While charging, generally, could take anywhere from one to three hours, Mr Upreti said they had achieved times of 10 to 30 minutes and had a goal to reduce this to six minutes for one design.
Imperium3 was represented in Townsville by Jack Robertson. The company plans to start battery production in the US this year and open a first-stage six gigawatt hour-capacity plant in Townsville in 2024.
THIS IS AN OPPORTUNITY STARING THE COUNTRY IN THE FACE. WE NEED TO SEIZE THIS OPPORTUNITY
JOHN COLE