Managing director of Alkane Resources Ian Chalmers describes securing funding for the $1 billion Dubbo Zirconia Project (DZP) as “frustratingly slow” but advises that the company is “making good progress”.
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He has just returned from Europe where the company has been establishing off-take agreements for DZP products and “putting the financing together”.
“It’s progressing and hopefully over the next three or four months some of that information will be finalised and we’ll get it out into the public domain,” he said.
Mr Chalmers said the project’s $1 billion price tag had dictated the pace of the financing process.
“It’s a big number and of course that’s the major reason why it has been so slow,” he said.
“But we’re getting to the point of having everything in place to convince financiers and the stock market that ...the project is viable.”
The DZP has acquired all major approvals and licences needed to begin construction.
Preliminary works will include a $30 million upgrade of 23 kilometres of the Obley Road, set to carry trucks to and from the project’s future mining and processing site at Toongi.
Mr Chalmers said work on the Obley Road would be a visual cue that the project’s construction phase was under way.
“The first time we would look at it (Obley Road) is maybe in the first quarter of next year, once we get all the financing in place,” he said.
Mr Chalmers said work on Obley Road would begin in front of Taronga Western Plains Zoo.
A sound barrier will be built and hot mix seal applied to the road surface between the Newell Highway and Camp Road.
“It’s used on a lot of big, busy roads throughout Australia,” Mr Chalmers said. “It basically cuts down the tyre noise.”
Sections of Obley Road, between the highway and the Toongi Road intersection, will be widened and straightened.
Bridges will be built and culverts installed to address flooding.
“We want to be sure it’s a high quality and safe road,” Mr Chalmers said.
