Australian critical minerals miners push for bigger US role

Federal Resources Minister Madeleine King says the government is still pushing for a bigger place for Australian critical mineral miners in Joe Biden’s $US500bn Inflation Reduction Act.

Federal Resources Minister Madeleine King says the Albanese government is still pushing for a bigger place for Australian critical mineral miners in US President Joe Biden’s $US500bn Inflation Reduction Act.

Ms King told delegates at The Australian’s Bush Summit on Monday she was about to travel to the US for a new round of negotiations with Biden administration officials to encourage them to support more downstream processing in Australia as a means of securing supply for US companies and for the country’s defence ­industry.

“Critical minerals will be and are totally essential to clean energy technologies. Having a supply chain to make sure that we have options, that other nations have options, that AUKUS nations have options around supply chains is very important. That’s why the Prime Minister is working with President Biden on a compact on the climate and critical minerals,” she said.

Climate and clean energy technology co-operation between the US and Australia was added as a “central pillar” to the terms of the longstanding alliance, with the establishment of a climate, critical minerals and clean energy transformation compact a key means of formalising the agreement.

The compact could eventually give Australian miners and manufacturers access to US government support for lithium and other critical minerals processing facilities built in Australia. “I’ll be going to the US to address that because we do need to engage with the US, particularly on investment, to make sure we get those processing facilities here. We are good at extraction, there’s no doubt about it, but getting more investment into refined processing, that’s really what the critical minerals story is about,” Ms King told the Bush Summit.

“It absolutely requires governments to be involved. Geology is not enough – but it’s a great start.”

Mining industry leaders speaking at the Bush Summit said both state and federal governments needed to build on their critical minerals strategies to find ways to seize global opportunities, as well as reinvigorating Australia’s fading manufacturing sector.

The Association of Mining and Exploration Companies represents most of Australia’s critical minerals hopefuls, and chief executive Warren Pearce told the Bush Summit burgeoning demand for lithium, graphite, nickel and other metals over the next decade offered an opportunity for Australia to make up for the failure of previous generations of the mining industry to move further downstream.

“The reality is that this won’t happen without government support, and that’s the challenge we’ve had all along the journey. But the difference here is that we’re at the beginning of a new industry,” he said.

“We’re not competing against an established industry that has already set down the costs and paid the price of setting up. So we’re on a more competitive footing. It may cost more to do it here, but if we can get over that capital expenditure hump at the start, it will still be very profitable.”

Chamber of Minerals and Energy of Western Australia chief executive Rebecca Tomkinson told the summit the move to net zero carbon emissions would only happen “through WA”.

“We need twice as much cobalt, twice as much copper, twice as much nickel. We need more mining than we’ve ever seen before,” Ms Tomkinson said.