Jobs boom flagged for Cape York mine eyeing off approvals
Cape York silica miner Diatreme Resources has promised 450 new jobs and $500 million in regional economic activity as its Northern Silica Project enters a vital approval period.
A Cape York silica miner has vowed to pump hundreds of jobs into Far North Queensland as it shapes up to clear red tape and environmental hurdles in coming months.
ASX-listed Diatreme Resources is moving full steam ahead with its Northern Silica Project near Cape Flattery, confirming the critical mineral venture is entering the final stages of approval.
The flagship project, located 35km north of Hope Vale and close to The Cape Flattery Port, will submit the draft Environmental Impact Statement in coming weeks before public consultation opens early next year.
Diatreme Resource chief executive Neil McIntyre, who is hoping to start building the mine in early-2027, said the recent buzz about critical minerals was fuelling optimism about the sector.
“It’s a good space to be in at the moment and we are seeing a lot of policy rolling out,” he said.
“It’s unclear to us whether we would be directly participating in the US side, the more likely market for our product is still up into Korea, Taiwan, Japan.”
“Although, what this environment creates is opportunities for more downstream processing, so our sand could arguably be processed into some other very specialised silica products, which is something we would love to explore more.”
Diatreme plans to start production at 3 million tonnes per year, potentially ramping up to 5m tonnes soon after, placing it among the world’s largest suppliers of high-purity silica.
Silica is no ordinary sand. It is used in solar, glass and automotive manufacturing, with the global market tipped to hit more than $36 billion by 2032.
The Northern Silica project is forecast to generate about 200 construction jobs and 250 full-time roles during operations, pouring about $500 million into the regional economy over the mine’s life.
“There’s a lot of pressure from governments and others to establish a solar panel manufacturing presence in Australia,” Mr McIntyre said.
“The supply of our products will be the catalyst for that. It’s a build it and they will come from a government encouraging developers to mine and develop projects which can genuinely create manufacturing opportunities and we are very clearly in that space.
“If you get these foundation producers and miners in place, all those other downstream opportunities processing, manufacturing can follow and that’s important.”
The Queensland Government granted Project Status across all five exploration areas in The Cape Flattery and Cape Bedford region back in August 2025.
LOCAL JOBS
Once operational, Diatreme Resource is planning a drive-in, drive-out workforce from Hope Vale and Cooktown, rather than a fly-in, fly-out model.
The company has set up an office in Hopevale with four staff, and has a base in Cairns.
Mr McIntyre said the mine will help grow the regional economy, particularly around Cooktown.
“There’s a strong view that the government wants to see us succeed and it’s for all the right reasons,” he said.
“The importance of the impacts of our project regionally, the positive economic benefits, the opportunities that creates in community
“The nature of the low-impact mining and the product we produce, which is a critical mineral in Queensland, is an important part of the renewables story as well.”
ENVIRONMENT
The company is in the “business end” of its approval process and is hoping to have government sign offs by the end of next year.
Mr McIntyre said silica mining was “very clean” in mining terms and held more than 100 meetings with traditional owners in the region.
The company has its sights set on an “ambitious 50 per cent target for Indigenous employment.
“We fully appreciate we’re working in a highly sensitive area, so we’ve spent an awful lot of time and effort to undertake appropriate studies and make sure our environmental footprint is minimised as best we can,“ he said.
“We recycle about 85% of the water we draw. We progressively rehabilitate as we mine. So as we mine, we rehabilitate vegetation behind us. We’ve modified our mine and infrastructure plan to avoid areas of high significance. It’s one of the keys.”
He said the sand was “incredibly pure” in the area.
“It has a lot to do with how the dunes were originally formed in the prevailing weather conditions up there which is high rainfall, high heat,” he said.
“Nature’s doing a lot of the hard work for us already.”
A key priority moving forward is negotiating an agreement with Ports North to fully use existing spare capacity at the State-owned Cape Flattery Port.
FNQ’S CRITICAL PLAYERS
When Advance Cairns hosted Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles earlier this year, critical minerals was identified as a key opportunity for the Far North.
The state government also recently just tipped $30 million into the Mourilyan Silica Sands project, located about 30km south of Innisfail, which is set to bulk up production, creating 180 new jobs and positioning the region as a major player in the global critical minerals market.
The project will soon export high-quality silica to key markets in Asia, helping the Far North secure its place in the global supply chain.
At the time, Minister for Finance, Trade, Employment and Training Ros Bates said they would continue to nest in “high quality assets”.
“Demand in countries like Japan, Korea and Taiwan is growing rapidly, and we are taking strong action to make sure Queensland is essential in the global supply chain,” she said.
“Our investment through QIC has delivered the plant, equipment, and land acquisitions for SRA to get on with creating jobs and mining the more than 50 million tonnes of silica sand on the project site.
But silica isn’t the only mineral putting us on the map.
The Metro Mining bauxite mine near Weipa is smashing shipping records and is well-poised to meet growing global demand for aluminium – a key material in renewable energy technologies like wind turbines and solar panels.
Mount Carbine tungsten mine has already established itself as a leader in critical minerals. Tungsten, a metal essential for defence and advanced technologies, is in high demand as global supply chains tighten.
Originally published as Jobs boom flagged for Cape York mine eyeing off approvals
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