Sun Metals Zinc Refinery\u00a0has\u00a0announced\u00a0details of a\u00a0vital\u00a0investment partnership between the\u00a0United States\u00a0Government and Sun Metals parent company Korea Zinc,\u00a0a deal set to deliver one of the\u00a0world\u2019s\u00a0most advanced critical\u00a0minerals\u00a0processing facilities.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
To be\u00a0revealed\u00a0at today\u2019s\u00a0Townsville Enterprises\u00a02026 Mining and Manufacturing Forum, the integrated copper, zinc,\u00a0lead facility will produce 11 critical minerals\u00a0and\u00a0sulphuric\u00a0acid\u00a0\u2013\u00a0a key input to Queensland\u2019s phosphate production.\u00a0<\/p>\n
As the world\u2019s leading zinc processor, Korea Zinc\u00a0operates\u00a0major processing facilities in Seoul and Tennessee. The proposed\u00a0partnership\u00a0is\u00a0set to replicate the scale of its US operations in Australia while also\u00a0leveraging\u00a0strategic\u00a0government\u00a0and industry\u00a0relationships across South Korea and the United States.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The investment into North and\u00a0North West\u00a0Queensland\u2019s refining and smelting capability comes at a crucial time, with the potential to\u00a0revitalise\u00a0the industry after more than a decade of calls from community and business leaders to secure Australia\u2019s sovereign industrial capability.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Townsville Enterprise CEO Claudia Brumme\u00a0said\u00a0the investment into the region shows\u00a0North Queensland\u2019s growing role in securing Australia\u2019s industrial and manufacturing future.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cSun Metals has been a pillar of Townsville\u2019s economy for nearly 30-years\u00a0and they have become\u00a0one of\u00a0the world\u2019s leading\u00a0processors\u00a0of critical minerals,\u201d\u00a0Ms\u00a0Brumme\u00a0said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThis type of investment has the potential to be transformational for North Queensland and Australia, positioning our region at the forefront of the next generation of industrial growth and further reinforcing our role in\u00a0securing\u00a0future supply chains.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThe forum will also hear from international and national leaders about the importance of developing secure and sustainable critical\u00a0minerals\u00a0supply chains.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Korea Zinc\u00a0Chairman\u00a0Yun Choi\u00a0said the partnership highlighted the growing strategic importance of cooperation between Australia, South\u00a0Korea\u00a0and the United States in securing critical minerals supply chains.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cKorea Zinc\u2019s investment partnership with the United States government is built on our world-leading technology for processing critical minerals, and our long proud history in Queensland creates a valuable opportunity for Australia and South Korean cooperation,\u201d\u00a0Mr\u00a0Choi said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Sun Metals CEO Ron Lee\u00a0said the proposed investment represented a significant opportunity to strengthen Australia\u2019s critical minerals processing capability while\u00a0leveraging\u00a0Korea Zinc\u2019s global\u00a0expertise\u00a0and partnerships.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThe opportunity to develop a globally significant integrated mineral processing facility in North Queensland that aligns with our plants in\u00a0Onsan\u00a0(Korea) and Tennessee (USA), is real leverage for the Sun Metals operations, however it requires strong government collaboration as we have experienced in the US,\u201d\u00a0Mr\u00a0Lee said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Townsville Mayor Cr Nick Dametto\u00a0said\u00a0it\u2019s\u00a0great to see projects like this strengthening the\u00a0region\u2019s existing manufacturing capability.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cManufacturing is the backbone of North Queensland\u2019s economy, with nearly one in every six dollars generated in our regional economy coming from manufacturing activity,\u201d Cr\u00a0Dametto\u00a0said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThat is why projects like this are so important. They protect and grow our sovereign industrial capability, support thousands of local jobs.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
In a speech to be shown at the forum,\u00a0United States\u00a0Consul General Jeremy Cornforth\u00a0said the US government is committed to\u00a0creating\u00a0a sustainable and stable market for critical minerals.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThe\u00a0US-Australian alliance has been a strong one for many decades and in this particular area, Australia has enormous ways to contribute,\u201d\u00a0Mr\u00a0Cornforth said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cOf course, it has a long history of mining\u00a0expertise\u00a0and vast mineral resources. On the US side,\u00a0we\u2019re\u00a0trying to bring capital markets, our industrial capability, and our innovation.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThe goal is to reduce risk and move projects more quickly\u00a0from\u00a0feasibility\u00a0to actual production, and we have made a lot of progress in that department, especially in Queensland.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
VisIR\u00a0CEO Joseph O\u2019Brien\u00a0said\u00a0Townsville was uniquely positioned to become a globally significant hub for critical minerals processing and advanced manufacturing.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cFrom a technology and national security perspective there is no more important opportunity in critical minerals for Australia than to cooperate with South Korea and the United States, and Sun Metals provides that opportunity for Townsville,\u201d\u00a0Mr\u00a0O\u2019Brien said.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sun Metals Zinc Refinery\u00a0has\u00a0announced\u00a0details of a\u00a0vital\u00a0investment partnership between the\u00a0United States\u00a0Government and Sun Metals parent company Korea Zinc,\u00a0a deal…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":693765,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,338415,338416,44,338414],"class_list":["post-693764","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-claudia-brumme","tag-korea-zinc","tag-news","tag-sun-metals"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/693764","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=693764"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/693764\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/693765"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=693764"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=693764"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=693764"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}