Korea's mineral giant buys Australian clean energy developer

A wholly-owned Australian subsidiary of Korea Zinc Company announced on Thursday it will buy out Australia’s leading utility-scale wind and solar energy developer Epuron Holdings, to help decarbonise its zinc metal processes and to power green hydrogen production.

Ark Energy said it would acquire 4.2 gigawatts (GW) of proposed wind and solar developments across National Electricity Market (NEM) sites in Queensland, New South Wales and Tasmania, and a further investigation pipeline of 4.8 GW of projects through a takeover of Epuron Holdings.

The Australian clean energy arm of the Korean mining giant said it will also continue to deliver 5,860MW of projects under existing Joint Development Agreements (JDAs) with high-quality counterparties.

The buyout of Epuron will integrate one of Australia’s most experienced and successful early-stage development teams which includes 24 professionals with experience across all aspects of renewable energy development including scoping, identification, feasibility, community engagement, early development, final development through to pre-construction, Ark Energy said in a statement.

None of the companies disclosed the acquisition price.

According to Yun B. Choi, Chairman of Ark Energy and Vice Chairman of Korea Zinc, the acquisition will accelerate Korea Zinc Group’s energy transition and contribute to Ark Energy’s long-term ambition to develop a new green energy export corridor from Australia to South Korea.

Earlier this month, Australia and South Korea signed a pact on critical minerals used to produce low emissions energy technology such as wind turbines, solar photovoltaic and batteries, pledging to work together on developing low emissions energy technology.