Australia’s sunshine state, Queensland, will spend $5 billion (US$3.36 billion) on an 1100km electricity transmission line linking the state’s vast northwest mining region to the national grid for the first time.
The state government will take over private company CuString’s planned CopperString 2.0 project to build a high voltage line from Townsville to the northwest, which is rich in copper, zinc, lead, silver and potentially phosphate and rare earth minerals.
Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said the line capacity would be increased between Townsville and Hughdenden to allow future renewable energy projects to connect to the grid as well.
State-owned transmission provider Powerlink will conduct early work this year before construction starts next year, with the project due to be completed by 2029….