Described as a transmission line that would finally integrate Queensland’s North West Minerals Province into the National Electricity Market and extend the national transmission grid across northern Queensland, CopperString has released a formal Request For Proposal (RFP) for construction.

Executive chairman of the CopperString 2.0 project John O’Brien said project backers decided to proceed with the next stage of procurement by issuing a formal RFP to qualified contractors after a comprehensive resource economics study that he said validated “the immense untapped potential and long-term sustainability of the North West Minerals Province”.

“Today is another key milestone for CopperString 2.0 with the release of the formal procurement RFP that takes us closer to starting construction on the iconic “missing link” of the Queensland transmission grid linking Townsville to the North West Minerals Province and, importantly we create 750 jobs for the three-year construction program and around 2500 additional minerals-sector jobs for the next 30 years,” O’Brien said.

He said the undeveloped North West Minerals Province had known in-ground resources of copper, zinc, phosphate and new-economy minerals valued at $US455 billion ($735 billion) and access to the NEM which would dramatically reduce wholesale electricity prices.

“While the construction phase is expected to create 750 new FTE jobs for the 3 years program, CopperString’s significance is the economic benefit that will be seen across northern Queensland for the next 40 years by ensuring a sustainable minerals mining and processing industry for the region,” O’Brien said.

“Constructing a $1.5 billion transmission network will certainly create important short-term stimulus in Townsville and the west, and I’m committed to ensure this benefit flows through to our local community, however it’s the decades of investment and employment in our minerals sector that CopperString facilitates that is truly remarkable.

“While the world is a challenging and uncertain place at present we can’t take our eye of the future; we want to drive 40 years of prosperity for northern Queensland by making our minerals mining and processing industries sustainable providing well-paying jobs for the community.”