Federal Government backing Hydrogen & that map shows a critical minerals hub, just above it is New Economy Upstream Hub.
Hydrogen - Darwin Middle Arm
Critical Minerals hub - Centred around Mt Peake - Vanadium/Graphite (TNG), Phosphate (Ammarroo), Lithium (CSIRO/Australasian Gold).
New Economy Minerals Upstream Hub - Upstream means value adding - ie TIVAN, Novonix DPMG, BHP Nickel Sulphate, Greenbushes Lithium etc, but the dot is in an unexpected place around Mount Isa - around the Isa & Cloncurry (Ernest Henry) they mine Copper, Tin, Gold, Lead, Silver, Zinc & Cobalt so it would make sense for Glencore to value add locally as you've got lots of the inputs for battery metals there.
A lot of work has gone into the studies of critical minerals & future economic growth industries. Hydrogen definitely on everyone's minds thanks predominantly to Twiggy & FFI (not all coverage is equal nor necessarily fair though - Herd on the Terrace).
It is also a fairly low risk industry for government to support due to the many ways Hydrogen can be produced (Beetaloo is also shown on that map).
The advanced nature of the Environmental data collated for the site at Middle Arm by TNG you'd think could be used in an alternate proposal with minimal turn around time depending on what would take the place of the Darwin TIVAN facility.
An electricity only electrolysis installation versus a processing facility that uses steam to split hydrocarbons would come with different criteria. The first you'd think much simpler to permit than the second. A HV cable from Suncable to eventually power it (they would already have the design & access corridors mapped out as Middle Arm was the original location of the point where the cable was going to go underwater) would mean in a few years the Hydrogen produced there would be from solar PV - ie Green Hydrogen.
But at the moment there are lots of holes in the information we have available including -
What is Hysustain - what sort of process - Green H2, Grey H2, Blue H2, Yellow H2 etc?
Who are AGV Energy un-named consortium partners, what are their capabilities, what markets are they servicing, what conversion technology is used at the other end - ie fuel cells, combustion, ammonia production etc?
Do TNG still definitively have the rights to develop this land? Will they need a mining licence as was mentioned by the ECNT for TIVAN?
Who are the offtakes with - TNG or TNB Berhad (it looks like TNB)?
Is there a design/FEED completed on whatever Hydrogen plant is being proposed?
Does TNG plan to somehow use Hydrogen produced in Darwin down at Mt Peake for both the TIVAN process & at a later stage, Ferro-Vanadium Production, potentially green steel production (DRI)? How would this work (H2 transport via train?)
Are TNG talking to the other proposed developments at Middle Arm about Hydrogen - ie Ammonia production I think was another proposed industry at MA?
Who is engineering this? Who is funding this engineering? Who will fund the facility? What are the inherent risks in manufacturing/handling a gas that can create a hazardous atmosphere?
More questions for the AGM maybe?
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