Western Australia gets the go-ahead for the construction of a 580 km pipeline, costing $460 million, which will connect the Western Perth onshore gas production basin with mining customers in the Midwestern and goldfields regions of Western Australia.

This pipeline, known as the east-west Northern Goldfields Interconnect (NGI), is being constructed by one of the country’s largest electricity and natural gas providers, the Sydney-based APA group. The pipeline is due for completion sometime during 2022 and will increase energy capacity from 40 to 80 terajoules a day in the goldfield’s region.

This project will certainly benefit major energy users in the goldfield’s region especially, those involved in the mining and processing of strategic minerals such as gold, potash, vanadium, nickel and rare earths.

APA chief executive and managing director Rob Wheals, has said that the NGI was a more cost-effective way of boosting capacity to the goldfields, rather than expanding the existing and fully contracted 220 terajoules a day Goldfields Gas Pipeline from the Pilbara. In addition, Wheals stated “ importantly this $460 million investment creates a platform for further growth for APA as more and more resources customers seek energy solutions including, renewables and battery storage, underpinned by natural gas.”