New Kemerton road paves the way for Peel and South-West jobs

Site works have commenced on a new 2.5 kilometre road at the Kemerton Strategic Industrial Area (SIA), which is set to support the development of the new Albemarle lithium processing plant and unlock an additional 350 hectares of industrial land.

The $5.25 million road, an election commitment to provide serviced land at Kemerton, will connect Wellesley Road North to Marriot Road.

In addition to facilitating the operations of the lithium plant, the road will open up more land for strategic industry at Kemerton and provide an important freight link for businesses in the SIA.

Work is underway on the Albemarle plant on an 89ha site at the Kemerton SIA, north-east of Bunbury, with more than 500 construction jobs to be created during the development phase and a further 500 jobs to follow at full operational capacity.

The plant will comprise five 20,000 tonnes per annum process trains to produce up to 100,000 tonnes of lithium hydroxide once operational.

The Kemerton SIA is the South-West’s largest Strategic Industrial Area, designed to value-add to the region’s natural resources and support industries of regional importance.

Its development is led by the WA Department of Jobs, Tourism, Science and Innovation, and delivered by LandCorp’s Industrial Lands Authority (ILA).

May 2019 marks one year since the formation of the ILA – a WA Government election commitment to better co-ordinate the planning and delivery of industrial land to drive jobs and growth in WA.

In its first year of operation, the ILA has been responsible for unlocking 393 hectares of land for development and sale or lease of 120 hectares of land.

This will see direct investment of more than $3.8 billion and the creation of more than 6,100 construction jobs and more than 11,000 operational jobs.

Source: WA Government