Queensland Pacific Metals: Key Moranbah land and asset deals signed

A proposed project that will take coal mine gas and pipe it to Townsville to help make EV batteries has chalked up key land and asset deals. Here’s why it’s so important.

A sign for the proposed Queensland Pacific Metals TECH Project at the Lansdown Eco-Industrial Precinct at Woodstock, near Townsville. Picture: Blair Jackson

Queensland Pacific Metals, which aims to process EV battery materials in Townsville, has inked a key land rights deal and acquired ownership of a major piece of their renewables puzzle.

The company announced this week it had signed an Indigenous Land Use Agreement with the Widi Aboriginal Corporation for operations at Moranbah, part of the gas-rich Northern Bowen Basin.

A Widi Aboriginal Corporation spokesman said it endorsed QPM Energy’s “carbon abatement strategy, capturing waste gas from these mines and minimising the effect on our land and the environment around us”.

“As part of the ILUA (land agreement), QPME is committed to providing employment, education and training opportunities for the Widi people,” a Queensland Pacific Metals Energy spokesman told the ASX.

QPM aims to pipe waste coal mine gas from the Bowen Basin, reducing the country’s CO2 emissions by 238,000 tonnes a year.

The Widi Aboriginal Corporation and Queensland Pacific Metals Energy have signed an Indigenous Land Use Agreement for land about 40km north of Moranbah, an area known to contain high volumes of gas.

That gas would be used at the refinery near Townsville, and the project as a whole has an expected target of negative 989,000t CO2 emissions.

The refinery will use New Caledonian laterite ore to produce nickel and cobalt sulfates, and offtake agreements are in place for the life of the project.

Queensland Pacific Metals' Moranbah Project.

At the end of August QPM settled on acquisition of gas production assets and petroleum leases for about 100 wells at Moranbah. The company paid $5m, and received $35m as consideration for assuming obligations to supply gas under the Moranbah Project contracts.

The deal allows QPM to earn revenue by dispatching electricity produced by the Townsville Power Station to the national grid, receive gas sales revenue, and transport and store the gas in the North Queensland Gas Pipeline.

State resources minister Scott Stewart said it was great to see QPM progressing its TECH project, which would support hundreds of jobs in Townsville.

“It’s exciting to see Townsville continuing to power ahead through projects like this along with the Palaszczuk Government’s $5bn investment in Copperstring 2032,” Mr Stewart said.

Queensland Pacific Metals plans to build a battery metals refinery at Lansdown

QPM is developing the Townsville Energy Chemicals Hub (TECH) project near Townsville at Lansdown, which will process the critical minerals that go in lithium-ion and EV batteries.

Battery manufacturers LG Energy Solutions and steel producers POSCO have invested and signed offtake agreements for the TECH project.

The North Queensland Gas Pipeline.

The state government has designated the TECH project with ‘significant investment project’ status, meaning the state aims to ensure the project gets necessary support to facilitate prospective investment in Queensland.

Based in Brisbane, QPM’s $0.063 share price is at a three-and-a-half year low.

Originally published as Queensland Pacific Metals: Key Moranbah land and asset deals signed