13 acres of freehold land within the town of Greenvale in North Queensland has been purchased by Australian Mines Limited to support the development of the company’s wholly-owned Sconi cobalt-nickel-scandium project.
“This land purchase in Greenvale marks our first step in delivering on our promise of employing local, living local, buying local,” Australian Mines Managing Director Benjamin Bell said.
The Bankable Feasibility Study (BFS) conducted on the project and released to market in 2018 shows that the Sconi project is expected to create over 300 ongoing full-time jobs over the next 20 years.
For this project, Australian Mines is committed to operating the mine with majority of its workers employed from the local community. The company will also be investing on other infrastructure such as new housing and community social infrastructure - including a local medical facility. Australian Mines is planning to upgrade a number of public infrastructure including water, sewerage, roads and airport as well.
In relation to the construction and upgrade of public and community infrastructure, Australian Mines will be in close consultation with the Greenvale community and the local Government.
“Australian Mines is keen to ensure that not only do we, as a company, capture the full value-add of the Sconi Project by converting our own raw ore to the final battery precursor chemicals of cobalt sulphate and nickel sulphate for direct input into EV batteries, but that the local community also directly benefits from the development of this project through secure employment, improved public infrastructure and my personal commitment that at least 90% of every dollar spent by this operation will be spent with businesses from North Queensland,” Mr Bell said.
Project development is expected to commence in mid-2019, once funding has been finalised.
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Source: Australian Mines Limited; Australian Mining; Proactive Investors Australia