Business
4 June, 2025
Deputy delight: Phosphate project given priority status
The PhosOne joint venture at Paradise South has been made a 'prescribed project' by the government.
Deputy Premier Jarrod Bleijie has promised to cut red tape and speed up approvals for North West Phosphate’s expansion plans, which would result in about 240 permanent jobs across the region.
On Friday, Mr Bleijie, who is also the Minister for State Development, flew into Mount Isa with Assistant Minister Sean Dillon to inspect the mine with NWP’s John Cotter and Mount Isa mayor Peta MacRae and to announce that PhosOne would become a “prescribed project”.
PhosOne is a joint project between NWP and Sibanye-Stillwater, and aims to grow local production of phosphate rock concentrate for use in agriculture as fertiliser.
The declaration as a prescribed project will mean a streamlined approval process for the integrated project, which is expected to generate $1.4 billion in economic value and create 240 ongoing and 490 temporary construction jobs.
New jobs would be created in Mount Isa and at Century Mine, as well as the Port of Karumba.
The project will mine phosphate ore from NWP’s Paradise South mine, 130km north-west of Mount Isa, before being transported to Century Mine for processing.
Additional processing of the concentrate will then occur at the Port of Karumba, before the phosphate rock concentrate is shipped to trade partners.
“The Crisafulli government is committed to delivering new opportunities for the North West, and expanding mining in our regions,” Mr Bleijie said.
North West Phosphate managing director John Cotter said the state government’s prescribed project status was a strong signal of support and provided welcome momentum as the project progressed through the joint venture study phase.
“This declaration supports the project’s continued development and planning, and recognises the long-term strategic value a project like PhosOne could offer in terms of securing phosphate supply, supporting regional employment, and contributing to domestic fertiliser production,” Mr Cotter said.
“PhosOne has the potential to deliver a stable, long-term economic boost for the North West Minerals Province.”
Mr Cotter acknowledged that while the announcement of prescribed project status wouldn’t resonate with some, it was a major boost for a fledgling project.
“For us it means that we have a single source of government contact for all of the various different approvals,” he said.
“I think more that what the Deputy Premier has done with the Coordinator-General has sent a sign of confidence to everybody up here that you can go from exploration to production under this government.
“And that message is what I want every explorer to hear; that we have seen it first-hand and we’re putting our own money where our mouth is because of that confidence.”
Mr Cotter said NWP was already employing about 70 people out of Mount Isa and was not built to be a fly-in, fly-out mine.
“The people we have working for us now come to site and stay there while they work, but they come back to Mount Isa at the end of the week,” he told North West Weekly.
“It’s more of a bus-in, bus-out mine because it’s too far to drive in and out each day.”
Expect full production out of Paradise South in 2027.
“We’ve got trucks running out at the moment from our early samples that are going to customers for testing,” Mr Cotter said.
“As we work through the approvals process, we’ll ramp up this year with the Department of Environment and Science and the Department of Mining, and then the real big operations will kick off.
“Next year, we’ll start mining properly to move about three million tonnes of material a year to produce a million tonnes of concentrate around 2027.
“We are a little bit different as a mining company. We are farmers that got into this because we are worried about food security.
“So, when we’ve spoken to other farmers in south-east Asia, those farmer cooperatives and those fertiliser cooperatives quickly realise that they see the same thing we do.
“So, our partners in New Zealand, the farmer cooperatives of Korea and Japan and India and Indonesia have all come on very quickly and rapidly.
“Longer term, we’re working with (Mount Isa City Council) to look at producing feed grade phosphoric acid which makes lick blocks here in the north.
“There’s six million cattle in the northern parts of Australia that are phosphorus deficient.
“We see a massive opportunity in bringing some manufacturing here in Mount Isa to feed those agricultural markets.”
Sean Dillon, Assistant Minister for Primary Industry Development, Water and Western Queensland, said Friday’s declaration was another example of how the government was delivering more economic development opportunities in regional Queensland.
“Our resources and agricultural industries are a powerhouse for Queensland’s economy and this project has the potential to deliver for both – more domestically manufactured fertiliser and more mining development,” the Member for Gregory said.