Beach, You are correct about copper, price wise yes copper mines...

Beach,
You are correct about copper, price wise yes copper mines closing due unviable mainly end of life is why they are unviable and less being spent of exploration the crunch will come. Copper has doubled in the last 2>3 years in price and when the crunch comes it will double again.

About the outback, you are correct there is solar energy abundant all you need to do is store it and what a better way than a Radox Flow Vanadium Battery accepting charge via solar panels. The storage units are containerized for transport & plug and play style additions can be made to increase storage capacity.
Central Australia has no need to be a EV free zone those long distances can be achieved with solar energy as the free non transportable non stoppable energy source. There is only one issue the Government can't yet TAX sunlight as an energy source but they are working on it.