Queensland
Pacific Metals, an emerging producer of sustainable clean and green nickel, is progressing its TECH projec
Queensland Pacific Metals, an emerging producer of sustainable clean and green nickel, is progressing its TECH project, which boasts unrivalled world-leading sustainability credentials for minerals processing, with negative carbon emissions, no tailings dam, no process liquids discharge and zero solids waste. “The potential is phenomenal,” says CEO Stephen Grocott.
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Queensland Pacific Metals, a listed Australian company headquartered in Brisbane, was established to focus on developing the 100%-owned Townsville Energy Chemicals Hub (TECH) Project in Queensland.
Located 40 km south of Townsville in northern Queensland, the TECH Project will be a modern and sustainable battery materials refinery, processing high-grade laterite ore imported from New Caledonia to produce nickel sulphate and cobalt sulphate, critical metals for the rapidly emerging lithium-ion battery and electric vehicle sector, as well as other valuable co-products.
With a pre-feasibility study completed, the company is now finalising the necessary funding to move to construction. “This is a very exciting as well as challenging time,” says Stephen Grocott. “The project is unique in many ways and if the world cares about having a clean supply of critical metals, then companies like QPM
have a phenomenal future.”
Mr Grocott was approached by the company in 2020 to become its CEO and lead the project to execution. With a PhD in chemistry, he has enjoyed a long and varied career in metal processing, industrial chemistry, project development and operations, working in prominent roles for leading companies including Rio Tinto and BHP. Still, QPM’s start-up mentality and the exciting opportunity promising significant potential made him accept his current role in 2021.
Since then QPM has grown from a market capitalization of AU$10 million to several hundred million, going from having a 1 in 50 chance of success to a point where it is now poised to turn this project into a reality. “We have made a lot of progress over the last three years, with a lot of development work and engineering studies accomplished, but also offtake agreements signed, demonstrating a significant amount of trust in what we are doing.”
The company plans to import high-grade nickel laterite ore from New Caledonia for processing at the TECH facility, using a patented recovery and recycling process called the DNi Process™. The DNi Process™ is owned by a UK company, Altilium Group, from which Queensland Pacific Metals has obtained the licensing rights to
use it in its operation.
The DNi Process™ has been designed for extracting nickel, cobalt and other precious metals from laterite ore with a view to ensuring the sustainability of natural resources. The technology’s environmental credentials are unmatched. “In typical nickel production from nickel ores, you will get 10 kg of nickel from a tonne of ore. The remaining 990
kg, with the reagents and other ingredients needed for the production process, make between 1.2 and 1.4 tonnes of solid waste,” Mr Grocott points out.
On the contrary, in the TECH Project, all valuable metals will be leached into solution and then recovered and refined into saleable products, revolutionizing the resources sector by becoming a zero-solids waste operation – a
feat that would be an industry first.
“We also have zero liquid wastes, as all the liquid gets reprocessed within our facility, and we capture waste gas and use that as our fuel. So we are negative carbon, zero liquid waste, zero solid waste,” he remarks. “ I’ve been in project development and operations for 40 years and I’ve never seen any project that’s had more than one of the three, much less two of the three. To have a project that’s got all three is absolutely unheard of.”
However, the technology has never been commercialised, and as such comes with a risk, as Mr Grocott admits. “Still, all the new component technologies have been used in other industries. So we’ve got all the Lego building blocks, and if assembled correctly, the outcome will present a great opportunity.”
The company is now focused on the engineering and test work and piloting, and finalising a very complex bankable feasibility study. “Our aim is to secure funding for the project by the end of the year. Construction is a two-year process, so we are looking at first production late 2025, early 2026.”
The total project capital cost is about AU$ 2 billion. The company now has conditional debt lined up of AU$1.4 billion and is working on securing the equity. Not an easy task at a time of global inflation and geopolitical instability, but one that may get easier by the project being classified by the Queensland government as a ‘project of state significance’.
“We have a lot of debt provision from government bodies as well as from private banks and investors, so we are very well covered in that regard. One of our major attractions is that we have signed binding offtake agreements for 100% of nickel and cobalt sales for the life of the project. For any
company, let alone a smaller company like QPM, this is a tremendous achievement.”
The offtake partners include major global companies such as General Motors, LG Energy Solutions, and POSCO. These have also become investment partners with a significant shareholding in QPM. “Having 100% of our production already committed to some of the world’s biggest consumers in this game is truly exceptional.”
Mr Grocott points out that very early on, the company decided to approach the best suppliers in the world to source the required machines. “We didn’t go out and tender for the equipment, we
contacted the companies directly to enter into development partnerships with them. This has been a great success and now we are working with some of the biggest names in this game, such as KBR and Siemens, another sign that our project is viewed highly positively and with great expectations.”
In terms of its key commodity supplies, QPM recently reached an important milestone, when it secured its gas supply by conditionally agreeing to purchase the Moranbah Gas Project. This will create a vertically integrated energy supply chain securing all the gas requirements for the TECH Project. In addition, the excess gas produced will also be sold to external
consumers.
Mr Grocott affirms the company is now pushing ahead in line with its plans to complete financing and move into construction next year, and highlights the remarkable efforts of all employees. “Projects like this attract passionate, committed people and we have a fantastic team in QPM. The success of any company is down to its people and we are very lucky to have secured staff of this calibre.”
In concluding, he affirms that the company is confident in the strong financial metrics and potential for growth of the TECH Project and looks forward to moving forward with debt funding and investment opportunities.
