Magnis Resources says it is close to choosing a site for its proposed Townsville lithium-ion battery gigafactory.

The company said meetings in recent weeks with senior Townsville City Council officials and State Members of Parliament had confirmed a high level of support for the project.

A number of potential local council and state development sites which met the consortium’s criteria had been identified and were being assessed by Magnis engineers, it said.

“The level of interest coming through for the Townsville gigafactory is extraordinary,” Magnis Resources chairman Frank Poullas said.

“Being able to create a sustainable supply chain that bypasses the current major battery producing nations is something that really appeals to potential end users and investors.”.

Magnis is part of a consortium, led by Boston Energy and Innovation and including the Eastman Kodak Company, which has signed a memorandum of understanding with the Townsville City Council to investigate building a 15GWh lithium-ion battery manufacturing plant in the city.

The manufacturing facility would be able to produce either 250,000 car batteries per annum or one million home battery units or support 300 microgrids to power mall towns, the proponents said.

The project would be expected to create up to 1000 direct jobs in the manufacturing facility, an additional 1000 new jobs in the direct support businesses, with up to 5000 new jobs in downstream original equipment manufacturing.

Site selection is expected to pave the way for the commencement of the feasibility study to initiate the design and engineering phase of the project.

Magnis Resources is an Australian company which holds the Nachu Graphite Project in south-east Tanzania.