More mines for NQ: MP off to Europe to speak with investors

Townsville MP Scott Stewart is on a mission to increase the amount of mines in Queensland, getting on the front foot of the incoming green energy demand for ‘critical minerals’.

Townsville MP and Queensland resource minister Scott Stewart is jetting off to Europe, on a mission to increase the number of mines in Queensland.

The minister begins his whirlwind PR trip next week where he’ll speak to global mining investors about the bounty of ‘critical minerals’ in outback Queensland, ready and waiting to help the world decarbonise.

These critical minerals include: vanadium, copper, lithium, nickel and cobalt.

Vanadium is highly prized because it serves as the primary element inside flow batteries used for grid-level energy storage.`

Resources Minister Scott Stewart, in Townsville for the first Queensland Resources Industry Development Plan Ministerial Advisory Group meeting. Picture: Shae Beplate.

Mr Stewart said Queensland has some of the best deposits of critical minerals in the world.

“We want investors across the globe to know the huge opportunities in our Queensland resources sector, particularly in the North West Minerals Province (Mount Isa, Cloncurry region),” Mr Stewart said.

“The Palaszczuk Government’s plan is for North Queensland to be home to a whole new industry: mining, processing and manufacturing vanadium initially, and other critical minerals in the future.”

The European visit will begin in London at the Mines and Money conference which brings together more than 150 mining companies and 2000 mining leaders and investors.

All this is a warm up for next year’s World Mining Conference in Brisbane.

The Brisbane event will be the first time the 65-year-old World Mining Conference has been hosted in Australia and hopes are high it will kick start Queensland’s next great regional industry.

Originally published as More mines for NQ: MP off to Europe to speak with investors