The Australian state has unveiled a new strategy to accelerate project approvals and expand domestic mineral processing.
The Australian state of Queensland has presented a new roadmap for its critical minerals sector titled “Delivering Queensland’s Critical Minerals Future 2026–30.” The strategy aims to help projects move more quickly from exploration to production, reducing costs and risks particularly for smaller mining companies. At the same time, Queensland plans to expand capacity across the entire value chain. Existing industrial assets—including the zinc refinery in Townsville, the copper smelter in Mount Isa and the copper refinery in Townsville—provide an important foundation for this effort. Queensland also intends to deepen international partnerships and attract additional investment from the United States, the European Union, Japan and South Korea. The strategy is backed by a budget package equivalent to roughly $101 million.
Large and partly untapped mineral resources
Queensland already produces a range of minerals, including copper, zinc, lead, silver, tungsten and bauxite. According to the state government, Queensland also hosts globally significant deposits of rare earth elements, gallium and germanium, although these resources are not yet being produced commercially. Beyond mining itself, a major bottleneck remains the processing of many critical minerals, a stage of the value chain that China has dominated for decades.
Among the most important projects is Ark Mines’ Sandy Mitchell project in northern Queensland. The mineral sands deposit contains both heavy and light rare earth elements. Also in the north, Iltani Resources is developing the Herberton project, which includes the Orient silver-indium deposit. Indium is not currently produced commercially anywhere in Queensland or elsewhere in Australia.
In Brisbane, RZ Resources plans to modernize a former mineral sands processing plant so that it can produce rare earth concentrates in addition to titanium and zircon products. Part of the facility’s capacity is expected to be made available to other Australian resource companies.
Processing capacity designed for multiple users
The Queensland government is pursuing a similar shared-use model with the Queensland Resources Common User Facility in Townsville, which is intended to serve multiple companies. Planning for the facility gained momentum in 2023, and construction has since been completed. Australian resource and battery materials developer Vecco has been confirmed as the first user, with operations expected to begin later in 2026. The facility will initially focus on vanadium processing, with the potential to expand into other critical minerals such as cobalt and rare earth elements.
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