Stock price, page-439

AUST Business today (extract).
I HATE governments picking business winners… It’s so galling to see how ‘we’ funded Lynas Kalgoorlie vs this argument. And yet we still have to rely on a hundred year-old water pipe and unreliable power!

AUST: ILUKA’S ‘CRITICAL’ RARE EARTHS REFINERY HANGS IN BALANCE Cameron England The development of Iluka Resources’ $1.8bn Eneabba mineral sands refinery hangs in the balance with the company warning it needs more federal support to press ahead with the project, which it says is critical to national security and the energy transition.
Iluka originally costed the West Australian project at $1bn-$1.2bn, with the government’s Export Finance Australia coming to the party with a limited recourse loan of up to $1.25bn under the Critical Minerals Facility. Costs have since blown out and the project is now expected to cost between $1.7bn and $1.8bn. The Eneabba refinery is seen as strategically important given China’s dominance in the global rare earths trade, a point Iluka Resources managing director Tom O’Leary was keen to make while handing down the company’s first-half results on Wednesday.
“The Eneabba refinery will be a critical piece of infrastructure for both national security and the energy transition,’’ Mr O’Leary said. “It’s an archetypal project for the delivery of Western and like-minded policy initiatives in these areas. I’ve noted many times before the risk and opportunities that this investment presents. I’ve also been clear that Iluka requires an appropriate risk-sharing partnership with the government in order to continue the refinery development.’’
Mr O’Leary said discussions with the government were “well-advanced”, and to comment further would be inappropriate given the confidential nature of those talks. “I will say though that the Australian government, our strategic partner, understands Iluka’s position regarding risk sharing and also understands the merits of the Eneabba refinery, which is central to its critical minerals policy objectives,’’ he said. I know shareholders’ patience is limited and we are doing all in our power to delivery certainty.’’ A spokesperson for Resources Minister Madeleine King said the EFA “has been working closely with Iluka, like it would with any borrower, to assess options and identify appropriate solutions for Iluka to address cost increases at its Eneabba project’’.
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