Mount Isa has placed itself firmly in the running to host a battery anode materials plant when Axon Graphite kicks off its mining and processing operations in North-West Queensland.

The graphite play was previously focused on Townsville as a site for that plant, but has recently been in talks with Mount Isa City Council on the potential to develop it within a new Australian Critical Minerals Industrial Precinct.

Mayor Peta MacRae said miner Glencore had agreed in principle to release a land parcel north of the airport for the precinct.

Along with Axon Graphite, she said a phosphate company had expressed interest in the site and the council was working with the University of Queensland’s Sustainable Minerals Institute to establish a critical minerals research centre there.

It comes as the Mount Isa City Council looks to foster job-creating projects in the mining city in the wake of Glencore’s announcement that it plans to close its Mount Isa Mines underground copper operations in the second half of 2025.

Axon Graphite encompasses the merger of the high-grade natural graphite assets of Mount Dromedary owner Novonix with those of Lithium Energy – which holds the Burke and Corella deposits.

Axon Graphite intends to merge Mount Dromedary and the adjacent Burke deposit into one combined project and construct and operate a battery anode material (BAM) pilot plant.

This would undertake further testwork and optimisation to facilitate the design and development of a vertically integrated BAM manufacturing facility located in Queensland.

“The (Mount Isa City) council’s being very proactive,” Axon Graphite chief executive officer Graham Fyfe said.

“They have some very good-looking land that’s very close to infrastructure, water supply, power, everything we would need.

“There’s a lot of skills in Mount Isa that are going to become available. Another plus is that the main, I guess, feeder hub for the mine will be Mount Isa anyway, so there are definitely other synergies around potentially locating in Mount Isa.

“So it’s all in the cauldron of decision-making at the moment.”

He said the size of the proposed BAM plant was yet to be finalised, but it would employ more than 100 people.

If it chooses Mount Isa, Axon would also look at basing the pilot plant there, which would set an initial footprint and provide training in the lead-up to the full-scale development.

Concentrate would be produced at the graphite mine site and trucked to a BAM plant at Mount Isa or Townsville to be purified to almost 99.95 per cent purity.

“Then it’s bagged and put in containers and exported for sale or, if we develop a battery industry in Australia, hopefully used in the anodes (here),” Mr Fyfe said.

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Mr Fyfe said the critical path in all the development, funding aside, was securing the required environmental and mining approvals. If all goes to plan, Axon could be in production around late 2028/early 2029.

Mr Fyfe said the graphite venture had secured a provisional land allocation at Townsville City Council’s Lansdown Eco Industrial Precinct for the BAM plant about two years ago.

“Then we started going into the process with the council lawyers of what costs would look like, the infrastructure costs, the land costs, all the requirements for tenants, what it looked like, where it was based, what transport looked like,” he said.

“And, I mean, it’s a good location, but Mount Isa also came with a pretty good offer as well in terms of land, costs and support. And I can say it’s far more pleasant dealing with the council itself than some lawyers representing a council objective.

“You’re looking at the economics and in Lansdown you’ll be bussing all your people from Townsville, which is 40km away, every day. Sure, they’re putting on all the water and power and everything you need, but you pay for it. There are pros and cons to both.”

He said Mount Isa City Council seemed very motivated to make sure the impact of the local copper concentrator and mine closing was minimised.

“I think it’s great for us to have options, and to see the support for the critical mineral side of things from the Queensland Government and from the various councils and what’s being developed,” Mr Fyfe said.

“It bodes well I think for the future of mining in Queensland.”

The prospectus for the $15 million to $25 million IPO of Axon Graphite is being finalised.

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