Australia Wants to Capture MORE Value from Its Mineral Production

Australia released this week the much anticipated ‘Critical Minerals Strategy 2023–2030’.

If successful, this could make Australia a global superpower in the space and foster investment in mining, energy and tech.

Here are your key points:

The main goal is to produce more minerals (and we are blessed!) while embedding Australia in supply chains for:

• lithium-ion, vanadium flow batteries
• advanced medical equipment
• defence industry tech
• LED lighting
• optics

and others!

Programs already exist:

Such as:

• Geoscience Australia’s $225MM Exploring for the Future
• $100MM Critical Minerals Development
• Australian Critical Minerals Research & Development Hub

But the announced strategy wants MUCH more.

I’ll review 3 key areas:

(and highlight a potentially BIG problem)

🔹 Developing strategically important projects

Today, Australia is a leading supplier of raw materials.

But we all know the truly life-changing value is down the supply chain, in processing and manufacturing.

Moving downstream is full of challenges…

Like these risks:

• technical: complex mineralogy, processing
• remoteness, large capital and energy needs
• many promoters are junior miners
• supply chains, opaque markets and limited pricing data.

Makes financing difficult and thus may require targeted support.

🔹Attracting investment and international partnerships

To grow a resilient, sustainable, globally competitive sector, Australia seeks to work with ‘like-minded partners’ to:

• access key markets
• attract capital, IP and tech
• encourage collaboration + knowledge sharing

🔹Unlocking investment in enabling infrastructure and services

Given minerals are dispersed, proposes options that can unlock large-scale infra investment to:

• distribute economic benefits
• support regional development
• link communities to domestic/global markets.

Among planned actions:

• Australian-Made Battery Plan
• Support for a strong pipeline of projects
• $500MM Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility
• National Reconstruction Fund -$1B for value-add in resources and $3B for renewables and low-emissions tech

plus

• co-investing, joint projects
• track & monitor foreign investment to ensure no conflict with national interest/security
• Encourage industrial clusters/hubs where optimisation could lower costs/make projects globally competitive

All sounds promising.

But here’s the issue:

Wording suggests restrictions to offtakes with foreign companies (for lithium and rare earths) could come in the future, to protect domestic supply. Also, concentrate exports may be discouraged.

Other countries have done it.

Australia may too.

Deglobalisation.

In any event:

Accelerating global demand for critical minerals and the energy transition is an unmissable opportunity for Australia, to:

• tap into global supply chains
• develop technology domestically
• level up in clean energy generation
• capture much more value from all minerals!

Sources:

If you want to read the full strategy and have the full list of critical minerals, here you go.

• Strategy
• Critical minerals list

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