Critical minerals sector gets $250m boost from federal budget

The critical minerals sector scores a $250m boost from the federal budget, including a $200m accelerator program for early stage investment in projects.

The critical minerals sector is getting a $250m boost from the federal budget, including a $200m accelerator program for early stage investment in projects.

The critical minerals sector is receiving a $250m boost from the federal budget, including a $200m accelerator program for early stage investment in projects and another $50m for the establishment of a National Critical Minerals Research and Development Centre.

Announcing the measure in the budget, Resources Minister Keith Pitt, said the government was taking action to ensure that Australia’s critical minerals sector “goes from strength to strength”.

Mr Pitt said measures would help strengthen the sector to allow it “to become more globally competitive”.

“Australia possesses extraordinary reserves of the critical minerals crucial to many industries including medical equipment production, defence, aerospace, automotive and agritech,” he said.

“Australia is responding to global demand for gas and critical minerals with our large reserves, technical expertise and a track record as a reliable and responsible supplier.”

Critical minerals include lithium, magnesium, graphite, cobalt, manganese, rare earths, silicon and titanium.

Tuesday’s budget measures build on the $2bn Critical Minerals financing facility established by the government last year to help finance critical minerals projects including EcoGraf’s battery anode materials facility in Western Australia and a graphite project being developed by Renascor Resources in South Australia.

The budget papers report that the government has also begun negotiations on another project which will receive funding under the facility.

But it is not releasing details as they are deemed to be commercially sensitive.

The latest budget measures will help the sector expand into downstream processing, a move which Mr Pitt said would “position Australia at the heart of global supply chains for technologies ranging from mobile phones to fighter jets.”

The $200m accelerator initiative will be spent over five years to support early to mid stage critical mineral projects which are considered to be in line with the government’s strategy to help the projects “overcome technical and market barriers.”

The $50m will be spent on the establishment of a Critical Minerals Research Centre to help build capability in critical minerals processing, target technical bottlenecks in strategic supply chains and drive break through collaborative research. It follow measures outlined in the Mid-Year Economic Forecast released last year supporting critical minerals supply chains.

Originally published as Critical minerals sector gets $250m boost from federal budget