Industry kept hanging on release of acid report

There’re indications that the Queensland acid study will be released on August 1. The Department of State Development made the announcement at this morning’s ‘Industry briefing and meet the buyer networking’ event in Cloncurry. John Hoare, who is a leader in the Department of State Development’s batteries team, addressed the meeting reportedly saying it was becoming increasingly prohibitive to import sulphuric acid and the state would need look at local production to meet the impending shortage. Related: SMAC eyes acid plant opportunity in North West Mr Hoare said there would be an industry briefing on August 1 that would offer more detail. The study was commissioned by the Queensland Government at the World Mining Conference last year and was due for release early 2024. Supply has been complicated since then with the announced closure of the BHP’s Nickel West operation in Western Australia. Related: Richmond touted as a site for sulphuric acid plant The Kwinana facility had been expanded to include Australia’s first nickel sulphate plant. The urgency for solutions is growing along with the potential of new mining operations in the North West. There are two sulphuric acid plants in Queensland. One owned by Incitec Pivot is based in Mount Isa. Its primary feedstock is sulphur collected from the Mount Isa Mines smelter. The smelter is due to close in 2030. Incitec Pivot’s Phosphate Hill operation is the also biggest customer for acid produced from the Sun Metals plant in Townsville owned by Korea Zinc. Sulphuric acid is integral in hard rock processing operations and demand is set to increase rapidly. Centrex is in the throes of doubling phosphate production to 625,000 tonnes at its Ardmore operation. A Queensland company, North West Phosphate, has four leases around Mount Isa including Paradise South where production is projected to include two million tonnes of phosphate ore/year over an initial 20-year mine life. Then there’s the emerging vanadium industry which requires sulphuric acid in its processing flowsheet. Proponents are heavily backed by the government as a source of critical minerals. A plethora of vanadium junior miners have staked leases along the Toolebuc formation north from Julia Creek to Richmond. The other source of bulk demand comes from heap-leach operations usually in processing gold ore. There have been several solutions put forward for source material. One substitute has been put forward by Broken Hill-based Cobalt Blue where the company has a developed technology to process mine waste including that from copper sulphate ore in North-West Queensland. The process converts the sulphur into a ‘prill’ form which is inert.

Industry kept hanging on release of acid report

Industry Queensland

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