North West Phosphate’s Paradise South phosphate mine given state government mining lease

Project looks to give jobs to local workers as major mining lease granted in North West.

Tractors work at the Metlaoui phosphate production plant on March 8, 2018, in the Metlaoui mining region, one of the main mining sites in central Tunisia... / AFP PHOTO / FETHI BELAID

A $300m phosphate mine in the North West has received a green light with 445 jobs created as part of the project.

The state government has granted mining leases to the Paradise South phosphate mine, about 130km northwest of Mount Isa near the Lady Loretta zinc mine, with plans in place for company North West Phosphate to use local services as part of the project.

Phosphate is largely used to make fertiliser in the agriculture sector, but is also needed for batteries and other technologies used to transition to a net zero economy.

The supply chain disruption caused by the war between Russia and Ukraine has led to more phosphate deposits being tapped into in Australia.

Centrex's Mount Isa phosphate mine.

North West Queensland was earmarked as one of the regions with big phosphate resources which were formed by marine animals that died when an ancient inland sea dried up.

Paradise South will be an open cut mining operation with it expected to excavate up to two million tonnes of phosphate over the initial 20 years of the mine’s life.

Resources and Critical Minerals Minister Scott Stewart said the mining lease was a ‘vote of confidence’ in the region from the government and companies like North West Phosphate.

He said the role that phosphorus would play in the move to a net zero economy was one of the reasons the Commonwealth Government added it to the new strategic minerals list.

“We are backing the development of projects like this and the North West Minerals Province through support like our Collaborative Exploration Initiative program and our $5bn investment in Copperstring,” Mr Stewart said.

North West Phosphate executive chairman John Cotter said the company had worked with the government to bring this “difficult and complex project to fruition”.

“We know that the Mount Isa community is relying on us to deliver local jobs and local opportunities and we will continue to work with the Queensland Government to get this project off the ground as soon as possible,” he said.

“As many in the North West region would know, this project was first talked about decades ago, but it is the cutting edge project design underpinned by world class technology that has been put together by the North West Phosphate project team that will make sure this project becomes a reality.”

Originally published as North West Phosphate’s Paradise South phosphate mine given state government mining lease