ASX-listed Pure Minerals is moving to take control of a venture proposing to develop a processing plant in Townsville to produce nickel sulphate and cobalt sulphate for the battery industry.

It has entered an agreement to take over Queensland Pacific Metals, whose management team cites decades of experience in the industry, including with Queensland Nickel and Gladstone Pacific Nickel.

In an announcement to the market, Pure said that QPM’s management team had long-standing relationships in New Caledonia which had resulted in the group being able to secure a binding ore supply agreement to purchase high-grade nickel-cobalt ore.

It planned to commence feasibility studies regarding the development of a plant to process about 600,000 wet metric tonnes of nickel ore per year with the intention of producing about 25,000tpa of nickel sulphate and 3000tpa of cobalt sulphate.

QPM also holds the Eden Garry Serpentine Ridge project in the Marlborough region, which is known to host nickel-cobalt lateritic deposits.

Pure Minerals chairman Jeremy King said the acquisition of Queensland Pacific allowed the company to obtain leverage to secure production from world-class nickel and cobalt deposits without the attendant geological, mining or engineering risks.

“We believe that terms of the agreement represent excellent value for PM1 shareholders ,” he said. “Townsville has a deep heritage in nickel processing and is emerging as a potential battery manufacturing region in Australia.”

Imperium 3 – an international joint venture led by Boston Energy and Innovation, Magnis Resources and Charge CCCV LLC – is proposing a $2 billion lithium-ion battery factory at Woodstock, on Townsville’s outskirts.

Meanwhile Multicom Resources has partnered with US-based tech company StorEn to develop a proposal for the manufacture of vanadium batteries.