Richmond touted as a site for sulphuric acid plant

Build it at Richmond. That’s the message from the mayor of the North-West Queensland shire offering a solution to sulphuric acid supply in the metals-rich area. There are two sources of sulphuric acid manufacturing in Queensland, the Mount Isa Acid plant owned by Incitec Pivot (IPL) and the Sun Metals plant in Townsville, whose largest customer is IPL. Main image: Mount Isa Acid Plant owned by Incitec Pivot Sulphuric acid is also used in heap leach operations and has been earmarked as central to the development of the vanadium mining industry emerging mid-way along the Flinders Highway between Townsville and Mount Isa. The shortfall in domestic production is forecast to be in the hundreds of thousands of tonnes. The offer to build a new acid plant at the proposed inland port, located 16km east from Richmond, had been put to Resources Minister Scott Stewart, Mayor John Wharton said. Richmond Shire Mayor John Wharton. It aligned to the state’s priorities, Cr Wharton said. “I met with Minister Stewart the other day in Brisbane at a local government function and told him about the inland port at Richmond that we're pursuing," he said. “It'd be an ideal spot for a sulphuric acid plant, particularly with the vanadium development going on around Richmond and Julia Creek. “Critical minerals out there are pretty important to the State Government (and) I've spoken to a number of mining companies about their need for sulphuric acid and it is important for them." Related: Inland port plan to keep mining goods moving The council had earmarked 2400 acres for an inland port beside the Great Northern Rail Line for a host of industry including a cotton gin and grain handling, Cr Wharton said. The site was east of the flood-prone areas, and its utility was proven in the 2019 floods when IPL used it as a phosphate set-down area, pre-empting some of the biggest flooding the North-West region had seen, Cr Wharton said. This enabled the company to keep trading, he said. “So we realised then that from Richmond to Townsville Port, there's nothing going to stop you. It (the flooding) is always west of Richmond,” he said. “It's a great idea and we've got a lot of mining company support to develop the inland port. It'll be a lot cheaper, I can tell you now, to store product out there and still get it to the boat, than it would be stored on the coast. “That's an ideal spot for a sulphuric acid plant and I told our Minister (Scott) Stewart that. So we'll see what comes out of it. And a couple of miners have already told him that too. I believe that they support the idea of a sulphuric acid plant at the Richmond (inland) port.” A council-commissioned concept plan suggested the inland port would cost $30 million to develop. The inland port site had access to power via the Copperstring development. The cost to build a sulphuric acid plant had been put at one billion dollars, Cr Wharton said. The State Government commissioned the Queensland Acid Study at the World Mining Congress held in Brisbane last year. Questioned about it at the Mount Isa MPX conference last month, Mr Stewart said it was ‘on his desk’. It has not been released. You may also like: https://industryqld.com.au/vanadium-pressed-for-acid-options

Richmond touted as a site for sulphuric acid plant

Industry Queensland

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