an Integrated Food & Energy Project

Project Status

CassTech site location map Map courtesy of Tourism Queensland The company is completing a feasibility study to support equity investment and preliminary project approvals. Cassava plantings are being expanded at the Australian Agricultural College, Burdekin Campus to provide a foundation for commercial plantings. An experienced board and advisory group has been assembled to provide a credible management team.

Options over private land and negotiations with state government for a publicly held block are well advanced. In total, 9,000 hectares (22,000 acres) of largely grazing land on three contiguous blocks have been identified with additional adjacent blocks of land available. This will provide 6,000 hectares (15,000 acres) of croppable land and an annual cassava root yield of 420,000 tonnes. The land will be converted to cropping land using irrigated and underground water.

Significant milestones include

  • Stage 1 plantings completed at the Australian Agricultural College Burdekin Campus. Pre-commercial stage 2 plantings to be completed in Jan 2009
  • Preliminary project cost estimates completed ($150M AUD)
  • Detailed financial modelling completed
  • Starch factory engineering commenced with the Food Division of GHD Ltd – a global engineering company
  • Negotiations for water are well advanced
  • Land and Water Management Plan in progress
  • Key roles filled including board, cassava agronomist, farm manager, feedlot manager, starch plant manager and world-renowned cassava specialists.
  • Seed funding finalised
  • Land negotiations (18 month call options) are substantially progressed.
  • Regular meetings with relevant government agencies
  • Negotiations with a top-tier international bank specialising in agriculture to assist in equity raising and undertake subsequent debt raising.

The project provides unique advantages

  • Stable, secure, long term supply of starch, cattle and cassava pellet at fixed or parity pricing
  • Integrated farm and factory including co-located feedlot minimises cassava transport costs, eliminates transaction costs and allows full traceability
  • Integration enables all major inputs to be controlled. Only variable is starch price which can be fixed through contracts
  • Exploits full cassava plant to maximise project value:
    • Stem to produce energy
    • Foliage to produce stock feed (cattle or pigs)
    • Root to produce starch or pellets
  • All year round operation and integrated model reduces overall capital costs
  • Access to Australian domestic market with low cost, backload freight
  • Can be expanded (land and water available) to more than 500,000 t/y of starch
  • In the longer term, the project is highly suited to large-scale bio-ethanol or polylactic acid plastics production using wet starch as feed:
    • stable investment environment able to support mega projects
    • close to export facilities
    • water, energy available