Queensland Nickel is a company owned by businessman and former politician
Clive Palmer
Clive Frederick Palmer (born 26 March 1954) is an Australian businessman and politician. He has iron ore, nickel, and coal holdings. Palmer owns many businesses such as Mineralogy, Waratah Coal, Queensland Nickel at Townsville, the Palmer C ...
. Queensland Nickel owns and operates the Palmer Nickel and Cobalt Refinery at
Yabulu
Yabulu is a town and coastal suburb in the City of Townsville, Queensland, Australia. In the , Yabulu had a population of 697 people.
Geography
Yabulu is approximately north of Townsville, Queensland, Australia. The Bruce Highway passes thro ...
in
North Queensland
North Queensland or the Northern Region is the northern part of the Australian state of Queensland that lies just south of Far North Queensland. Queensland is a massive state, larger than many countries, and its tropical northern part has been ...
, Australia. The refinery was established in July 1971
Palmer acquired the refinery in 2009 from
BHP Billiton
BHP Group Limited (formerly known as BHP Billiton) is an Australian Multinational corporation, multinational mining, metals, natural gas petroleum public company that is headquartered in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.
The Broken Hill Propri ...
.
On 19 January 2016 the company entered into
voluntary administration
As a legal concept, administration is a procedure under the insolvency laws of a number of common law jurisdictions, similar to bankruptcy in the United States. It functions as a rescue mechanism for insolvent entities and allows them to carry o ...
. In April, 2016 the company's creditors voted for
liquidation
Liquidation is the process in accounting by which a company is brought to an end in Canada, United Kingdom, United States, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, Italy, and many other countries. The assets and property of the company are redistrib ...
.
Operations
The refinery carries out two operations: ore processing and refining. By design, the front-end of the refinery is where the ore is processed whereas the back-end is where it is refined and prepared for sale to the international market. The ore used in these two operations is received via rail from a facility at the
Port of Townsville
Port of Townsville is a government-owned Corporation and seaport in Townsville, Queensland, Australia. It is the third largest seaport in Queensland after Port of Brisbane and the Port of Gladstone. It is located south of the mouth of Ross Cree ...
.
When operating at full capacity, the Palmer Nickel and Cobalt Refinery is responsible for over $1 billion of output in the
North Queensland
North Queensland or the Northern Region is the northern part of the Australian state of Queensland that lies just south of Far North Queensland. Queensland is a massive state, larger than many countries, and its tropical northern part has been ...
economy and is the largest employer helping to generate over 3,000 direct and indirect jobs in Queensland.
History
The company was established in July 1971.
The
Yabulu Nickel Refinery was completed in 1974, after geologists commenced exploration of the
Greenvale deposit, an area originally mapped by officers of the
Bureau of Mineral Resources
Geoscience Australia is an agency of the Australian Government. It carries out geoscientific research. The agency is the government's technical adviser on all aspects of geoscience, and custodian of the geographic and geological data and knowl ...
in 1957.
The
Greenvale railway line
Greenvale railway line is in northern Queensland, Australia. It carries nickel ore from a mine in Greenvale to the Queensland Nickel's refinery in Yabulu, approximately north of Townsville
Townsville is a city on the north-eastern coast of ...
was built to transport the ore from Greenvale to the refinery in Yabulu.
In 1986, the first test shipments of Nickel ore from Indonesia and New Caledonia were processed at the refinery with regular shipments starting in 1988 and 1989. It was in 1989 that the refinery's internationally patented ammoniac AL solvent extraction technology was introduced to the refining process to significantly improve the separation of nickel and cobalt.
Queensland Premier,
Anna Bligh
Anna Maria Bligh (born 14 July 1960) is a lobbyist and former Australian politician who served as the 37th Premier of Queensland, in office from 2007 to 2012 as leader of the Labor Party. She was the first woman to hold either position. In 2 ...
, asked
Clive Palmer
Clive Frederick Palmer (born 26 March 1954) is an Australian businessman and politician. He has iron ore, nickel, and coal holdings. Palmer owns many businesses such as Mineralogy, Waratah Coal, Queensland Nickel at Townsville, the Palmer C ...
to purchase the refinery and save jobs in North Queensland. Palmer acquired the refinery in 2009 from
BHP Billiton
BHP Group Limited (formerly known as BHP Billiton) is an Australian Multinational corporation, multinational mining, metals, natural gas petroleum public company that is headquartered in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.
The Broken Hill Propri ...
.
As part of the purchase, Palmer had to personally guarantee over $3 billion to ensure workers' jobs were safe. The impact on the local economy was immense as the refinery's operations were responsible for 1970 full-time equivalent jobs in North Queensland, $150 million in income and salaries in addition to $1.1 billion in output for the local economy.
When the operation was first acquired by Palmer in 2009, the cost of production was over $8 per pound. During the course of the next five years, the manager and director Clive Mensink (Palmer's nephew) was responsible for the reduction in the cost of production to $4.40 per pound.
The reduction in production costs ensured that the QN Group of companies was still able to continue operations and employ people, despite the falling price of nickel on the world market.
Environmental issues
A freedom of information request by the Northern
Queensland Conservation Council
The Queensland Conservation Council (QCC) or Queensland Conservation is a non-governmental organisation that represents all the major conservation organisations of Queensland state in Australia. The organisation have been working to protect, cons ...
in 2014 showed that Queensland Nickel discharged nitrate-laden water into the
Great Barrier Reef
The Great Barrier Reef is the world's largest coral reef system composed of over 2,900 individual reefs and 900 islands stretching for over over an area of approximately . The reef is located in the Coral Sea, off the coast of Queensland, ...
in 2009 and 2011—releasing of toxic waste water on the latter occasion. In June 2012, Queensland Nickel stated it intended to release waste water, continuously for three months, "at least 100 times the allowed maximum level as well as heavy metals and other contaminants". A
Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority
The Great Barrier Reef Marine Park protects a large part of Australia's Great Barrier Reef from damaging activities. It is a vast multiple-use Marine Park which supports a wide range of uses, including commercial marine tourism, fishing, ports an ...
(GBRMPA) briefing stated the company had "threatened a compensation claim of $6.4bn should the GBRMPA intend to exert authority over the company's operations". In response to the publicisation of the dumping incidents, the GBRMPA stated:
We have strongly encouraged the company to investigate options that do not entail releasing the material to the environment and to develop a management plan to eliminate this potential hazard; however, GBRMPA does not have legislative control over how the Yabulu tailings dam is managed.
Financial troubles
Despite having previously ruled-out requesting government funding, Palmer requested taxpayer-funded assistance from the
Queensland Government
The Queensland Government is the democratic administrative authority of the Australian state of Queensland. The Government of Queensland, a parliamentary constitutional monarchy was formed in 1859 as prescribed in its Constitution, as amended fr ...
in late 2015 to guarantee a loan of for the redundancies.
However the government rejected the request, citing the refusal of the company to share full details with the government and its large donations to Palmer's
Palmer United Party
The United Australia Party (UAP), formerly known as Clive Palmer's United Australia Party and the Palmer United Party (PUP), is a currently deregistered Australian political party formed by mining magnate Clive Palmer in April 2013. The party ...
. Despite its financial troubles, Queensland Nickel donated more than $20 million to the
Palmer United Party
The United Australia Party (UAP), formerly known as Clive Palmer's United Australia Party and the Palmer United Party (PUP), is a currently deregistered Australian political party formed by mining magnate Clive Palmer in April 2013. The party ...
in two years
including a donation of $288,516 days before the workers were terminated. On 15 January 2016 the company Queensland Nickel Pty Ltd terminated 237 workers. The company blamed poor nickel prices, which were at a twelve-year low
and the refusal of the Queensland Government to support industry and jobs in North Queensland.
In March 2016 it was proposed by Palmer to transfer the employment of hundreds of employees, including their entitlements, to a new company Queensland Nickel Sales, a joint venture between two of Clive Palmer's companies, QNI Resources Pty Ltd and QNI Metals Pty Ltd, with Mensink as director. The plan was that the new company would continue to operate the refinery and would pay the outstanding expenses incurred during the administration, but required the administrator to agree transfer the cash held in the Queensland Nickel Pty Ltd bank account. In a sworn affidavit, Kelly-Anne Trenfield explained why the administrators would not agree to this transfer of cash. After the report by the administrators on Clive Palmer and Queensland Nickel on 11 April 2016, politicians and media from around the country criticised Palmer. In early April 2016 the administrators,
FTI Consulting
FTI Consulting is a business advisory firm headquartered in Washington, D.C., United States. FTI is one of the largest financial consulting firms in the world and consistently ranks as one of the top global management consulting firms. The comp ...
, found that the company had "incurred debts of $771 million after going insolvent in November".
On 22 April 2016 the company's creditors voted to
liquidate
Liquidation is the process in accounting by which a company is brought to an end in Canada, United Kingdom, United States, Ireland, Australia
Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign coun ...
it.
In April 2018 Palmer claimed the attacks were politically motivated and launched a counter claim and is suing the liquidators for $1.8 billion in damages.
Future
On 29 June 2018, Palmer held a press conference in Townsville to address the claims against him and announced his intention to re-open the refinery and create hundreds of jobs.
Due to high cobalt prices in 2018, there is also an estimated $6 billion worth of cobalt in the
tailings dam
A tailings dam is typically an earth-fill embankment dam used to store byproducts of mining operations after separating the ore from the gangue. Tailings can be liquid, solid, or a slurry of fine particles, and are usually highly toxic and potent ...
s onsite at the refinery operations in Yabulu. At the same time Palmer began his return to Australian politics.
In popular culture
The subject of the
Slim Dusty
Slim Dusty, AO MBE (born David Gordon Kirkpatrick; 13 June 1927 – 19 September 2003) was an Australian country music singer-songwriter, guitarist and producer. He was an Australian cultural icon and one of the country's most awarded stars, ...
song "Three Rivers Hotel" is the building of the railway line from the Greenvale Mine to the Yabulu Refinery in the early 1970s.
See also
*
Mining in Australia
Mining in Australia has long been a significant primary sector industry and contributor to the Australian economy by providing export income, royalty payments and employment. Historically, mining booms have also encouraged population growth vi ...
References
{{Reflist
External links
Company Website
Companies based in Queensland
Australian companies established in 1971
Mining companies of Australia
Mining in Queensland