EOIs going out as North West Phosphate advances plans
By Industry Queensland
Expressions of interest open this month for the work required to bring the $300 million Paradise South phosphate project online in north-west Queensland.
North West Phosphate aims to reach financial close in March 2024, heralding the issuing of contracts and mobilisation to site, according to managing director John Cotter (pictured above).
This will set the scene for an expected start to production in the first half of 2025.
“Expressions of interest open on the 30th of October for construct and procure and mine contractors, and also for local businesses to register for subcontracts, D&C (design and construct) and services,” Mr Cotter said.
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Information will be available on the North West Phosphate website and businesses can register their interest via tenders@nwphos.com
Mr Cotter said the construction workforce was likely to be around 250 to 300 people, and the operational workforce 120-150.
He said North West Phosphate was shooting for a very high local participation rate.
“There’s a bias to contractors that can take advantage of as many local resources as possible,” Mr Cotter said.
Paradise South is near Glencore’s Lady Loretta zinc mine, about 130km north-west of Mount Isa.
The Paradise South operation will include a beneficiation plant to produce the phosphate concentrate for domestic and international markets.
Product will be transported to Mount Isa and either railed Townsville or trucked across to the Northern Territory rail network, depending on the buyers.
Interest is high in the scheduled 1Mtpa output from Paradise South.
“We have had strong interests beyond what we can produce, and it’s encouraging given that there are other high-quality phosphate resources in Australia that need financing,” Mr Cotter said.
“And we’re very supportive of this new phosphate industry across Australia because we now know how much demand there is for our product.”
North West Phosphate held a project briefing in Mount Isa yesterday and will hold another in Brisbane (room 0M08 UQ Brisbane City) next Tuesday from 2pm. Contact comms@nwphos.com to attend.
