Counting the benefits of the Sconi decision

Australian Mines’ mining lease approval in north Queensland has been hailed as both a critical minerals development and jobs boon. Australian Mines has the Sconi, scandium, cobalt and nickel lease north west of Charters Towers. The announcement of a 25 year mining lease comes following a rapping of the company’s knuckles by the Australian Consumer and Competition Commission (ACCC). Resources Minister Scott Stewart Around 780 jobs would be on offer in North Queensland as the project came on line said Resources Minister Scott Stewart. The estimated $1.4 billion project has a planned life of 30 years processing two million tonnes of ore per year with project planned commissioning in 2028, said Mr Stewart. Once operational, the open-cut mine and the adjoining processing plant is expected to produce around 47,000 tonnes of nickel sulphate, 7,000 tonnes of cobalt sulphate and 89 tonnes of scandium oxide. These are critical minerals which are needed to make batteries for the electric car industry,” said Mr Stewart. “Around the world communities are demanding and making the shift towards a cleaner, greener low-emission economy. “Queensland has an abundance of the critical minerals the world needs to decarbonise. “The Sconi Project is a vote of confidence in Queensland’s resources sector and means more good jobs for the state’s north.’ Main image: Bulk samples from the Sconi site The state government was committed to the project said Mr Stewart who pointed to the recently released Queensland Critical Minerals Strategy and the $5 billion Copperstring 2032 electricity transmission line. Planning was also well underway on the $75 million Queensland Resources Common User facility, a multi-user, multi-purpose warehouse designed to prove up the commercial viability of critical minerals in Queensland he said. ACCC finding The ACCC found that former managing director Benjamin Bell had falsely claimed that Australian Mines had secured funding to construct a plant for Sconi and misleadingly stated that the value of an offtake agreement with SK Innovation was $5 billion, despite the agreement including a potential buyers discount of 15 per cent. In May last year Mr Bell was fined $70,000 and disqualified from managing corporations for two years. The Federal Court handed the company a $450,000 penalty for breeching its continuous disclosure obligations on three occasions in relation to the events.

Counting the benefits of the Sconi decision

Industry Queensland

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