Add Category
Updated
Zinc production is set to increase in Australia with a multi-million-dollar investment to expand a north Queensland refinery.
Key points:
- Will create 350 construction jobs
- Expansion will create 100 ongoing jobs
- Estimated to create 820 direct and indirect jobs for north Queensland
Korea Zinc Company will spend $300 million on its Australian subsidiary, Sun Metals Corporation, which owns a zinc refinery just outside of Townsville.
The expansion is expected to increase the refinery's zinc production from around 225,000 tonnes per year to 270,000.
Sun Metals said work would begin immediately and was expected to be complete by the first half of 2021.
"As an organisation we've been working on this very hard for the last 18 months," Sun Metals' executive director Kathy Danaher said.
"One of the key objectives we were trying to do was trying to make this company more resilient in an environment that changes all the time."
Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk recently visited South Korea and met with representatives from Korea Zinc Corporation.
"They told me very clearly how important Townsville was for their global plans and this expansion is part of their global plans," Ms Palaszczuk said.
Ms Palaszczuk said her department has resolved issues around port access and transport to enable the expansion.
Queensland Resources Council (QRC) has welcomed the announcement.
"It's another example of resources doing the heavy lifting when it comes to underpinning the economies of regional cities," chief executive Ian Macfarlane said.
"Townsville will continue to benefit with the recently announced investments into the Galilee Basin."
Refinery creating jobs after collapse of another
It would also create about 350 construction jobs, and 100 ongoing positions in Townsville, which has an above average unemployment rate.
"It's announcements like this that clearly show jobs are on the horizon," Ms Palaszczuk said.
Hundreds of people lost their jobs when the Queensland Nickel Refinery collapsed in 2016.
"A lot of people have been doing it tough since the closure of Queensland Nickel," Ms Palaszczuk said.
Economic lobby group Townsville Enterprise CEO Patricia O'Callaghan believed the zinc refinery expansion would create 820 direct and indirect jobs for north Queensland.
Ms O'Callaghan said this project, combined with Adani's promise to provide Townsville locals jobs for its Carmichael Coal Mine, demonstrated the private sector's confidence in north Queensland.
"It's showing that there's a future for our refineries in north Queensland," Ms O'Callaghan said.
"It indicates that [Sun Metals] are here for the long term and our community is going to benefit from these real jobs."
QRC said its data found resources delivered $925 million to the Townsville economy in 2017-18, and supported close to 6,000 full time jobs.
About 30 per cent of the zinc refinery's electricity is generated by a $200 million solar farm at the site.
Topics: industry, unemployment, mining-rural, townsville-4810, korea-democratic-peoples-republic-of
First posted