I reckon Ellison is working the govt hard on a number of fronts.
Considering what the Mining/Petroleum minister said to the Thin Review, late last week (I posted it somewhere, just can't recall where), it's pretty clear he sees MIN being at the forefront of developing a battery materials industry in WA, given the Lithium Hydroxide plant they're going to build, and the Hazer and Hexagon graphite stakes - and development financing.
When such a minister says WA is a 'technology story', not a 'quarry story', that's a pretty big signal things are afoot.
No doubt Ellison's playing the access to infrastructure as being vital to developing that battery materials industry, which he and MIN lead.
As the minister noted, you get up the value chain by processing the materials, to the tune of about 10 times cf with just digging it up (Neometals reckon 8, but let's not quibble).
Or, as the minister noted (to paraphrase), 'you deliver 10 times the value to WA and the nation.'
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