The Queensland government's "nation-leading" plan to invest $5 billion to link the mineral-rich northwest with the national grid has been praised by crossbenchers and has tentative support from the opposition.
The state government will take over private company CuString's planned CopperString 2.0 project to build a high-voltage line from Townsville to the northwest, which holds vast copper, zinc, lead, silver and phosphate deposits.
The latter is a lucrative component of fertiliser, while the region also holds deposits of rare earth minerals needed to make smartphones and renewable energy parts.
