Gina Rinehart’s Hope Dairies has agreed to buy surplus government land in the Mary Valley for dairy production.
Hope Dairies agreed with the former LNP government to buy up as much as 5000ha of dairy farms in the Mary Valley purchased by the state government for the defunct Traveston dam, The Gympie Times reports.
Mrs Rinehart has joined forces with Chinese industrial giant China National Machinery Industry Corporation in the $500 million joint venture to export infant milk powder from Queensland to China, the Queensland Country Life reported.
Hope Dairies chief executive Dave Garcia confirmed that the agreement with the Queensland government would be honoured and the business plan was moving forward.
"We've met with the Agriculture Minister Bill Byrne already who was across the detail and said they would be honouring the memorandum of understanding we signed with the previous government," Garcia told the Country Life.
He said he had been "very impressed" with the approach and enthusiasm of the new Queensland government.
"The State Development Minister Anthony Lynham actually called us in the very early days after coming to the office to introduce himself and let us know that 'Queensland is open for business' and 'we need you guys'. He was very straight talking and had a great attitude to the project.
"All round I have been very impressed with this approach so far. They want this to happen for Queensland and Australia, which will be great for the regions."