New article on NT news, page-2

World’s largest integrated prawn farm in the Northern Territory February 06, 2019

THE man leading the company that plans to build the world’s largest integrated prawn farm in the Northern Territory, Seafarms executive director Dr Chris Mitchell, says the project is progressing according to plan.

Dr Mitchell, who is in Darwin, said recent significant achievements had all put the project’s prospects on a strong footing.“Project Sea Dragon is a staged $1.5 billion development over seven years to create 10,000ha of ponds capable of producing 100,000 tonnes of high quality Australian black tiger prawns each year and we are extremely happy with its progress,” he said.“When fully developed, the project will employ more than 1500 people and generate annual export revenues in the order of $3 billion.”

He said the project had been busy undertaking expressions of interest and tendering processes for packages of work at the Legune Station and Bynoe Harbour facilities.“These projects included earthworks, pond weather protection structures, broodstock sheds, buildings, process equipment, seawater recirculation systems and much, much more,” he said.

“On-ground earthmoving and other related work programs are being undertaken at Legune station for our Project Sea Dragon development as I speak — an extremely significant development for our shareholders.“Project Sea Dragon will be the first major aquaculture development in Australia of a global scale.“Both international and domestic support for the project continues to grow.

“We have a very significant equity partner in Nissui (and their 50 per cent owned Sealord company). Nissui is a major international seafood giant, with Sealord one of the largest seafood companies in the southern hemisphere.”