\u00a9 shutterstock\/David Steele Western Australia is the world\u2019s largest supplier of lithium<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nFocusing the policy effort on areas of competitive strength<\/h3>\n In the case of lithium-ion batteries, technology learning and economies of scale have seen global overall costs decline by 90% over the past decade. This means that raw material costs now loom larger in the overall cost structure, accounting for between 50-70% of total battery costs, up from 40-50% five years ago.<\/p>\n
Australia is one of the world\u2019s most competitive upstream producers of critical and battery minerals globally \u2013 a factor that will continue to increase in importance to Australia\u2019s trade partners.<\/p>\n
The ability to capitalise on the opportunities presented through trade partner incentives, and optimise the share of economic value captured domestically, relies on a continued commitment to sustainable and competitive upstream raw materials production.<\/p>\n
Similarly, the opportunity to create tangible opportunities for critical minerals producers from the numerous bilateral and multilateral agreements that Australia is a party to relies on a continued commitment by the government to identify and communicate specific market opportunities to the critical minerals sector.<\/p>\n
Approval complexity, timeframes, and costs are a significant impediment<\/h3>\n Inefficient, costly, and duplicative assessment and approvals processes continue to contribute to delays and increase the cost of Australian critical minerals projects. That is not to in any way imply that our standards, such as those required for environmental approvals, are not appropriate. The sector is steadfast in its commitment to meeting government and community expectations for the responsible development of our mineral resources.<\/p>\n
However, approvals processes can take 10-15 years from exploration to the mining stage of development, with environmental approvals processes typically consuming three to five years of this (compared to a matter of months in competitor jurisdictions). The cumulative effect of these drawn-out timeframes risks creating a disincentive to investment, preventing the sector from realising its potential, and substantially contributing to global decarbonisation.<\/p>\n
Ultimately, the persistence of cumbersome, inefficient, and costly regulatory processes will inhibit the industry\u2019s ability to ramp up production and capitalise on heightened global demand for critical minerals as a result. There is a significant opportunity to streamline approvals processes at both federal and state levels to enable new project development and brownfields expansions, including for projects already in the pipeline.<\/p>\n
Collaboration between federal and state government agencies and enhanced project facilitation is required to accelerate approvals processes for projects that are in the national interest.<\/p>\n
Urgent action is needed on energy<\/h3>\n Investment in clean energy generation, storage and transmission capacity is required at scale.<\/p>\n
Rapidly increasing global climate ambitions have resulted in several international jurisdictions mandating environmental, social, and governance (ESG) provenance requirements for critical mineral inputs to advanced manufacturing products. For the resources sector, the task of decarbonising existing operations will lead to a significant increase in demand on electricity networks.<\/p>\n
CME estimates that the South-West Interconnected System, for example, will need more than twice its current capacity. Likewise, any new projects, such as the processing and refining of critical minerals, will need access to a reliable, affordable supply of clean energy to power heavy (and energy intensive) industrial processes.<\/p>\n
A once-in-a-generation transformation of our electricity networks is required to meet this demand, to ensure we have a sufficient supply of clean energy, particularly to support the electrification of industrial processes, and to enable grid-connected companies to achieve net-zero commitments. But also to ensure we maintain a competitive edge to attract and secure investments in new projects, including securing more projects along the critical minerals value chain.<\/p>\n
The challenges of multi-year approvals processes extend to our electricity transformation challenge and make it even more urgent that we invest in the generation, transmission and storage components of both public and private networks to ensure a managed and timely transition.<\/p>\n
Our state is always stronger when industry and government work constructively together<\/h3>\n Australian governments recognise the vast and lucrative opportunities inherent in Australia\u2019s critical minerals sector \u2013 and how essential they are to delivering on global net-zero commitments.<\/p>\n
Since releasing its Future Battery Industry Strategy in January 2019, the WA Government has worked alongside industry to implement its vision for our state\u2019s future battery and critical minerals sector \u2013 and recently committed to the investment of a further $40m to accelerate critical minerals discoveries.<\/p>\n
Similarly, the Albanese Government consulted earlier this year on its new critical minerals strategy and is now waiting for its finalisation and release to accelerate Australia\u2019s role in the global market \u2013 signing a joint Declaration of Intent with Germany in March this year, the same month they committed to deepening co-operation and extending commitments to the Australia-India Critical Minerals Investment Partnership.<\/p>\n
In the first quarter of 2023, federal, state and territory resources and mining ministers agreed to co-ordinate efforts to support the development of Australia\u2019s critical minerals sector \u2013 recognising the development of the sector as a national priority.<\/p>\n
To realise shared State and Commonwealth critical minerals ambitions, it will be important to focus policy efforts on areas of competitive strength \u2013 to ensure we continue to capitalise on our advantages, including in upstream raw material extraction \u2013 while addressing challenges which may inhibit further developments along the value chain.<\/p>\n
While Western Australia is a tier-one mining jurisdiction, it is also a high-cost environment. State and federal policy initiatives supporting the development of the sector will need a ramping-up in order to compete with international players.<\/p>\n
The CME and its member companies are applying urgency and collaboration in their partnership with the government and key stakeholders, to ensure that Western Australia remains an attractive investment jurisdiction that fosters the ongoing expansion of the critical minerals sector through encouraging exploration, supporting project commitments and putting in place the settings which will enable the continual development down the value chain towards downstream processing, alongside the integration of new, innovative, net-zero emission technologies across our mine sites.<\/p>\n
Please note, this article will also appear in the fourteenth edition of our\u00a0quarterly publication<\/a>.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Discover how Western Australia is accelerating its critical minerals sector as demand surges in line with the energy transition.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":32960,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[24502],"tags":[24562,24206,24308,24495],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n
Boosting Western Australia\u2019s critical minerals sector<\/title>\n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n\t \n\t \n\t \n \n \n \n \n \n\t \n\t \n\t \n