comments from H.E Ambassador SUZUKI Kazuhiro at the Minerals Council of Australia for Minerals this week confirm this. Renewable energy generation and storage also need batteries.
This is where Australia can take its crease, right? I’m sure you know cricket much better than I do.
Australia is the world’s largest producer of lithium, and second in nickel reserves. It also produces large quantities of manganese and cobalt, and projects for graphite extraction are also already underway.
A great encouragement over the past year has been the activities of Japanese businesses involved in critical minerals.
From research and development to mining, processing, and refining.
Panasonic, Sumitomo Metal Mining and Mitsubishi Corporation are all working on nickel. Iwatani is developing a cobalt refinery. Idemitsu is investing in vanadium.
And I’m sure everyone here knows about Japan’s strong support for Lynas in rare earths.
More initiatives are in the pipeline and will contribute to further enhancing our cooperation in critical minerals.
