Australia: 5 million tons of high-purity quartz sand project approved to boost local photovoltaic glass industry development

     The Department of Industry, Innovation and Science of Australia has recently officially designated the Northern Silica Project (NSP) as a major project. This project will help strengthen the domestic raw material supply chain for solar modules, silicon wafers and high-end electronic products in Australia. 
The project has an annual production capacity of 5 million tons and can be used to manufacture photovoltaic glass. 
     NSP is a high-purity quartz sand deposit located in Queensland, north of Cairns, owned by Brisbane-based mining developer Diatreme Resources Limited. It is said to be one of the largest high-purity quartz sand deposits in the world, with a silica purity of over 99% and an iron content of less than 120ppm. This specification is crucial for the manufacturing of solar glass. According to Diatreme's plan, the project will produce up to 121 million tons of high-grade, low-iron quartz sand over 25 years, with an annual production target of 3 million tons, which is expected to expand to 5 million tons within two years of operation. The project is scheduled to commence construction in 2025. Diatreme notes that NSP is adjacent to existing maritime infrastructure, facilitating exports to the Asian market, and is expected to become a major supplier of high-end quartz sand for the global photovoltaic and specialty glass industries in the future. The project is estimated to have a total investment of 535 million Australian dollars (approximately 349 million US dollars), and has previously been granted "Coordinated Project Status" by the Queensland Premier's Office. 
 Australia continues to lay out upstream manufacturing and downstream power generation projects in photovoltaic. 
     Apart from Diatreme, other Australian enterprises are also accelerating the layout of quartz and silicon material projects. In 2021, Solquartz announced that it would develop a silicon powder project with an annual output of 9,100 tons in Queensland, as well as a 52,000-ton metal silicon manufacturing project for the photovoltaic and energy storage battery industries. VRX Silica is advancing three high-purity quartz sand projects in Western Australia, with an estimated resource life of over 100 years. Additionally, the Australian federal government has renewed the approval of SunCable's "Australia-Asia Power Link Project" in Darwin as a major project. This project plans to achieve 6GW of 24/7 photovoltaic power supply through a supporting energy storage system and export clean energy to domestic and international markets. 
The "Future Made in Australia" plan will invest 22.7 billion Australian dollars to support the green transition. 
      Australian Minister for Industry, Science and Technology, Tum Ayers, said that granting major project status is an acknowledgement of the strategic significance and economic value of these projects and will provide additional support for them during the approval process. This policy is part of the Australian government's "Future of Australian Manufacturing" plan, which will invest a total of 22.7 billion Australian dollars in the 2024-25 fiscal year to support the green energy transition and economic resilience building, aiming to encourage private sector investment and promote local industrial development.