Key plant units of interest include blast furnace slag granulators and a pulverised coal injection coal facility.

Boulder is continuing to interact with raw material suppliers and the project is expected to source Australian coal and iron ore.

In its recent annual report, Boulder said preliminary steps were being made for a port access agreement with Gladstone Port Corporation.

Infrastructure for the project includes a rail loop and a coal unloading facility, plus an associated conveyor system to haul the coal to the stockyards.

The Australia-listed company is evaluating a shipping plan for the delivery of iron ore plus the export of its finished steel products.

The plans will cover berth requirements, berth design and support facilities.

Boulder said the EIS was progressing to the point where most of its sections were complete.

“The EIS will be finalised and lodged after the final plant design has been agreed with the joint venture consortium,” the company said.

“The Gladstone Steel Plant Project is an integral part of the highly significant industrial planning and development program in the Gladstone region.”

Last year Boulder Steel general manager and executive director Carl Moser told International Longwall News the first hot metal from the Gladstone plant was expected to be produced in 2013.

Bulk earthworks construction for the project was previously expected to take place in the last quarter of 2010.

In the first stage, the plant is intended to produce 2.1 million tonnes per annum of steel billets and blooms, while stage two will bring the total output to 5Mtpa.

Semi-finished steel products from the Gladstone plant will be shipped to another Boulder planned rail and heavy beam downstream processing facility in the industrial city of Al-Jubail in the Eastern Province of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

Boulder plans to build the Gladstone and Saudi projects simultaneously.