The state’s economy continues to pick up speed in the city and the bush with new projects spread across natural gas, wind farms, nickel mines and city apartments.
Delegates from major resource and infrastructure projects across WA will present at this month’s CCI Resource, Construction and Infrastructure Conference on June 28.
The winter edition of CCI’s magazine WA Works, covering major projects and supply chain news will show that WA infrastructure and supply businesses are busy, with more projects coming to light.
Nine new projects identified to date – including two giant gas ventures off the Pilbara coast – already top $14 billion in total value, with many more expected.
The fresh batch of prospects will expand the current WA Works’ Major Projects List, provided exclusively to subscribers in the autumn edition of WA’s most well-read supply chain magazine.
Natural gas, the ‘old’ energy source expected to burn brightly even in a low-carbon future, accounts for the bulk of the $14b in projects added to the list.
This is courtesy of Woodside’s $12b plan to monetise its stranded Scarborough gas field.
And lithium – the battery metal that keeps on giving to WA industry – hit another purple patch with four new listings storming onto the major projects list.
Comprised of three mine expansions and one downstream processing venture, the lithium projects are part of 12 new entries overall for autumn.
But it is Woodside’s plan to build a new gas processing hub in the Pilbara, built around the remote Scarborough and Browse resources, that continues to dominate the thoughts of engineering and construction companies.
Woodside may approve the $12b development as early as 2020, propelling the forgotten gas field off the Pilbara coast into the front of Woodside’s development queue.
At the other end of the spectrum, new-age energy metal lithium keeps moving into WA’s mining and economic folklore, albeit in more modest steps.
Talison has set the stage for a second mine expansion at the giant Greenbushes operation by appointing MSP Engineering to undertake a feasibility study into a further increase beyond the $320 million CGP2 expansion currently in construction.
An investment decision on Talison’s new CGP3 project is expected by the third quarter.
The other fresh lithium projects now on the boil are two separate mine expansions at the Pilgangoora hub, a $207m upgrade by Pilbara Minerals and an expansion by Altura Mining.
The biggest of the lot, however, may turn out to be Albemarle’s plan to build a major downstream lithium processing facility at the Kemerton industrial estate in Bunbury, starting later this year.
