Critical minerals an issue of national sovereignty

National sovereignty is partly behind a push towards critical minerals development. Associate Professor Carl Spandler from The University of Adelaide is leading an Australian Research Council linkage grant to develop an improved model to explore for critical minerals. The grant has three years to run. While demand is not mature just yet there are companies breaking the ice by mining lithium used in batteries and neodymium and dysprosium used to make high performance magnets to build wind turbines and electric vehicles among others. Australian company one of two dysprosium exporters Only Northern Minerals in the Kimberley is mining and exporting dysprosium outside of China. Both the Federal and Queensland governments are using incentives and other economic levers to push junior miners towards developing critical mineral mining, processing and manufacturing capabilities. The Resources Technology and Critical Minerals Processing Road Map aligns natural resources with latent demand and Prime Minster Scott Morrison is encouraging applications under a $1.3 billion modern manufacturing initiative. Critical minerals commitment drives careers It’s part of a 10-year plan to create growth in the critical minerals and resource sectors. The Queensland Government will announce the fifth commitment is its Collaborative Exploration Initiative grants in April with a heavy emphasis on exploration, mining and processing of critical minerals. Grants show a good return on investment Associate Professor Spandler says circumstances indicate the economics are changing quickly. “So, is there a pure economic reason? It's probably marginal, I mean, Lynas (Rare Earths) are making it work. They're building a processing plant in Kalgoorlie at the moment. “They do have a lot of support from the US, as well as from Australia. However, it’s important to take a wider view on the importance of these metals. “There is certainly demand. As we see an increasing uptake of renewable energy generation, and more electric vehicles coming onto the road, the amount of metals like neodymium needed for the magnets, is going to just continue to increase. “So there's certainly going to be demand into the future for decades and decades ahead.” Associate Professor Carl Spandler from the University of Adelaide. Associate Professor Spandler says the strategic positioning of critical minerals is starting to play out. “I think that the acceleration of renewable energy is not something that's going to slow down, it's probably going to speed up now, particularly with changes in the US Administration. “And so the importance of having a sovereign supply of these metals, and also for upgrading of the raw products, is more important than ever.”

Critical minerals an issue of national sovereignty

Industry Queensland

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