Media Coverage Relevant to AJM, offtake partners and major holders, page-378

FWIW,  more publicity on the  potential for downstream processing in Australia, with Atlassian’s Mike Cannon-Brooks possibly interested in helping (although I don’t know if there is a dollar value to the support he is intending to throw.)

cheers

https://thewest.com.au/business/atl...lan-to-create-one-million-jobs-ng-b881592974z

Atlassian boss Mike Cannon-Brookes backs clean energy lobby group’s plan to create one million jobs


Danielle Le MessurierThe West Australian
Monday, 29 June 2020 6:09PM



Atlassian founder Mike Cannon-Brookes has thrown his support behind a plan to create one million environmentally-friendly jobs. Credit: Don Arnold/WireImage


An Australian clean energy lobby group’s plan to create one million jobs is set to bring a huge wave of work to WA’s South West, Mid West and Pilbara regions.

The strategy by Beyond Zero Emissions also advocates expanding capacity for processing new energy metals, which could introduce more than 20,000 new jobs to the State’s mining sector.

Fast-tracking renewable power projects, improving energy infrastructure and using an abundance of cheap wind and solar to power a renaissance in Australian manufacturing were some of the key areas canvassed in the framework.

Atlassian boss and clean energy advocate Mike Cannon-Brookes has thrown his support behind the strategy, saying that “Australia should be a winner” in a carbon-constrained world.
“Let’s look at the natural resources we have, and we can build a renewable energy superpower,” Mr Cannon-Brookes, pictured below, said.

The plan outlined an opportunity for Australia “to become a world-leading processor of new energy metals”.
It said that if metals such as lithium, manganese, cobalt and rare earths were refined domestically, rather than being shipped overseas, this would create higher value products.

Processing of new energy metals is already taking off in WA, with two of the world’s largest lithium companies, Tianqi and Albemarle, investing in local processing facilities.

“Analysis carried out for Regional Development Australia showed that, in WA alone, expansion of the energy metals industry could directly create 21,500 new jobs,” authors of the plan wrote.

“The Million Jobs Plan assumes that 70 per cent of new jobs in the energy metals sector will be located in WA, with the remaining 30 per cent shared across the rest of Australia. This equates to the creation of 30,000 new jobs by 2025.”

Beyond Zero chief operations officer Heidi Lee said Australia put a lot of effort into mining “but less so the downstream processing of what we pull out of the earth”.

“WA produces the world’s best lithium so you want to make sure that you’re taking charge and taking the lead in a global battery market,” she said.
Chantel Caruso from WA’s Clean State initiative, which has worked closely with Beyond Zero, said the Pilbara’s solar resources were some of the best in the world and Geraldton’s wind was equally incredible as a resource.