CO2 Australia has acquired Marine Farms’ aquaculture site in Exmouth Gulf, Western Australia, bringing the group closer to the development of its 100,000 metric tons (MT) per year black tiger shrimp farm.
The purchase of the facility through its subsidiary Western Australia Resources Limited (WARL) is a key step in the advancement of WARL’s Project Sea Dragon and the site will now be upgraded and converted to prawn broodstock facility as part of the commercial breeding program for the project. Facilities will be used to hold, rear, breed and test animals for disease status prior to introducing them into the Project Sea Dragon production system.
“The purchase of Marine Farms Pty Ltd in Exmouth provides us with a highly biosecure site with access to high-quality water from Exmouth Gulf enabling the development of the prawn broodstock facility — a critical component of our Black Tiger Prawn commercial breeding program for PSD,” said Robert Bell, WARL managing director. “Marine Farms has aquaculture licenses, water systems and infrastructure in place, which WARL will upgrade and convert to hold, rear, breed and test animals for disease status prior to introducing them into the PSD production system.”
“The decision by the board to approve the purchase of Marine Farms completes an important element of the PSD project’s critical path and confirms that development of the project is on schedule. The acquisition supports the Company’s diversification strategy which is utilizing the background and skills base of our senior personnel to expand into the emerging agri/food sector (which holds considerable opportunity for Australia and companies such as ours),” said Andrew Grant, CO2 group CEO. “The Board anticipates announcing over the next several months other significant steps in the ongoing development of Project Sea Dragon.”
