About QN
Our History
Queensland Nickel's Yabulu Refinery has been operational for more than 30 years. Read more about our key milestones below:
|
1966 |
Geologists commence exploration of the Greenvale deposit, an area originally mapped by officers of the Bureau of Mineral Resources in 1957 |
|
1972 |
Construction of town and mine at Greenvale and the Greenvale to Yabulu railway commences |
|
1974 |
Greenvale town, mine and railway completed |
|
1974 |
Yabulu Refinery completed and commissioned |
|
1986 |
First test shipments of imported ore arrived at Yabulu from Indonesia and New Caledonia |
|
1988 |
First regular shipments of Indonesian ore arrive |
|
1989 |
First regular shipments of New Caledonian ore arrive |
|
1989 |
Yabulu Refinery’s internationally patented ammoniacal solvent extraction technology is introduced to the refining process to significantly improve the separation of nickel and cobalt |
|
1992 |
QNI Limited incorporated on 30 April 1992 and then listed on the Australian Stock Exchange on 24 September 1992 |
|
1992 |
Mining at Greenvale ceases |
|
1993 |
Last ore railment from Greenvale to Yabulu |
|
1993 |
Mining at Brolga commences |
|
1995 |
QNI Limited acquires 100 percent ownership of the assets of the QNI Group |
|
1995 |
Mining at Brolga ceases |
|
1995 |
All ore feed for the Yabulu Refinery imported from overseas |
|
1996 |
The cobalt plant is built at the Yabulu Refinery |
|
1996 |
The imported ore handling system is built at Port of Townsville |
|
1997 |
The Refinery is purchased by South African owned Billiton |
|
2001 |
BHP and Billiton merge. Yabulu Refinery becomes a wholly owned BHP Billiton asset |
|
2007 |
The Yabulu Expansion Project is completed. The completion of the expansion sees Yabulu processing ore from BHP Billiton’s Ravensthorpe mine in Western Australia |
|
2009 |
Following an Options Study, Prof. Clive Palmer purchases Queensland Nickel Pty Ltd and the Yabulu Refinery. |