Privately held Vecco Group’s namesake critical minerals project is one step closer to supporting Queensland’s energy grid and generating manufacturing jobs, after gaining coordinated project status.
Vecco, which is a $798 million renewable energy project, lies near Julia Creek in North West Queensland and involves the development of a greenfield open-cut mine and processing plant to extract vanadium, high-purity alumina (HPA), and molybdenum.
The Queensland Coordinator-General declaring the project as coordinated status paves the way for multiple environmental approvals.
Queensland Coordinator-General Gerard Coggan says it is important to facilitate and progress projects that help transition the state’s economy and provide pathways to realise the potential for new industry and job creations.
“The community and stakeholders should have a say in evaluating the economic, social, and environmental effects,” he says.
“The coordinated project declaration allows this to happen in a consistent and considered and sequenced way.”
As Coordinator-General, Coggan says he will oversee the project evaluation by all government agencies, consider community issues and possible impacts, as well as require an environmental impact statement for the project.
The planned open-cut mine, which will be built around 70km north of Julia Creek, is anticipated to extract up to 6.7 million tonnes per year of run-of-mine ore to produce up to 8,000 tonnes per annum (tpa) of vanadium, 4,000tpa HPA, and 600tpa molybdenum over a 17-year mine life.
The plant will supply minerals for use in the local manufacture in Townsville of rechargeable batteries for grid scale energy.
Vecco Group Managing Director Thomas Northcott says the company will integrate mining and manufacturing and apply its expertise in critical minerals into the downstream supply chain to support Queensland to achieve its renewable energy target.
“Demand for vanadium flow batteries is rapidly increasing to meet the world’s energy storage demands,” he says.
“Australia’s demand for medium and deep duration storage by 2045 has been estimated at over 100 gigawatts per hour by the market operator and vanadium flow batteries made right here in Townsville from Queensland’s minerals can help meet this need while creating good jobs in regional areas.”
The Queensland Government says the project is expected to create 300 jobs over the construction period, and up to 274 jobs during the mine’s operational phase.
Pending approvals, construction is expected to start next year and the operation phase will begin in late 2026.
Minister for State Development and Infrastructure Grace Grace says the state government can further enhance this status through a proposal with the potential to expand the region’s critical minerals industry and generate local manufacturing jobs.
“With demand for battery storage set to increase tenfold by 2030, this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for Queensland to become a driving force in the development, manufacture, and deployment of new energy storage technologies,” she says.
Vecco Group is an integrated mining and manufacturing critical minerals business that is focused on creating a vanadium battery supply chain in Australia, Europe, and the US.
Write to Aaliyah Rogan at Mining.com.au
Images: Vecco Group
