Australia’s QPM wins approvals for waste gas project

Australian battery metals refiner Queensland Pacific Metals (QPM) said it has received federal approvals for its proposed Northern Hub gas project in the Bowen basin region of central Queensland state.

The firm's wholly-owned QPM Energy subsidiary has received the go-ahead under the federal Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act, with the company saying that the conditions imposed are typical for the kind of development it is planning. Queensland state government approvals and an indigenous land use agreement is already in place for the project.

QPM this year acquired 100pc of the Moranbah gas project from Australian upstream venture Arrow Energy and utility AGL Energy, promising to increase gas output by a third from the present 10 PJ/yr (267mn m³/yr).

The company aims to eventually boost total output to 20 PJ/yr with the Northern Hub to support its Townsville Energy Chemicals Hub (TECH) project.

Northern Hub is located 43km north of the Moranbah project and will include a compression facility and high-pressure pipeline, connecting with the existing North Queensland Gas Pipeline infrastructure to direct gas to the industrial city of Townsville.

The firm will now seek to close deals for waste gas from Bowen basin coal mines including US-based coal producer Peabody Energy's North Goonyella, Australian coal producer Stanmore's Wards Well and Australian firm Fitzroy Resources' Iron Bark. QPM signed a deal with Fitzroy in June for gas drainage from its Carborough Downs coking coal mine.

TECH plans to produce chemicals for lithium-ion batteries and electric vehicles with a plant with a nameplate capacity of 16,000 t/yr of nickel and 1,750 t/yr of cobalt sulphates.

QPM last month announced it had produced battery cathode-grade nickel sulphate at SGS Canada's sulphate refinery pilot plant.

By Tom Major