A former QNI general manager says there is life at the Queensland Nickel plant at Yabulu outside Townsville.

In fact the site had the most prospective cobalt deposit in Queensland and possibly Australia, Orestes Trifilio said.

Mr Triffilio, these days a Dominican Republic-based consultant, led the refinery between 1998 and 2003 under BHP.

The electric vehicle revolution with its demand for nickel, cobalt and copper would bring wealth to the region for many years to come, Mr Trifilio said.

“We believe that the largest, richest and most accessible cobalt deposit, probably in Australia, is sitting in the tailings ponds of the ex-Yabulu refinery,” he said.

“In other words, the tailings, instead of being a curse or a problem, can generate an important opportunity.

“There are excellent technical ex-colleagues that may differ with me in this view, but am sure they will agree that there are several attractive features in the tailings, that would make them suitable as cobalt ‘ore’.”

The doors were shut on the refinery when it entered voluntary administration in 2016 with the loss of 800 jobs.