Ann: ASX Webinar Presentation, page-6

The world is waking up to the lack of mining standards applied in third world countries and the unfair advantage gained by the CCP by not following them. As mentioned in the SAFE report.

"Historically, businesses reliant upon critical mineral-based products, including EVs and EV components,had very little visibility into where their supplies camefrom and their associated human and environmentalcosts. This has inadvertently fueled a global “race tothe bottom” on prices and standards alike.For example, some miners in Indonesia are able toproduce nickel at a lower cost by cheaply dumpingtheir tailings into the ocean, which pollutes vitalmarine environments and destroys local livelihoods. Alternatively, in Australia, which is tied with Indonesiafor the world’s largest nickel reserves, marine tailingsdisposal is banned, and tailings are instead dealtwith on land at a higher cost. As a result, half of theworld’s nickel comes from Indonesia, while only fivepercent comes from Australia."

"Alternatively, if implemented among allies, particularlythose with large, tech-driven economies, responsiblesourcing standards can change global behavior. Forinstance, if the United States, Japan, and the EU—threeof the world’s largest economies and the largest automarkets outside of China—agreed to only sourceminerals produced with high standards, the rest of theworld would have to follow suit. Consequently, thepremium for responsibly produced minerals woulddissipate over time, as all mineral producers wouldbe incentivized to raise their standards to sell theirproducts into American, Japanese, and Europeanmarkets. This, combined with robust transparency andtraceability frameworks to ensure adherence and limitmanipulation, will help level the global playing field,removing the CCP’s unfair advantage and enabling thediversification of critical mineral supply chains that isdesperately needed."

"While fully implementing some of these policyprovisions may take time, there is ample opportunityfor the United States, its allies, and countries withwhich it has trade agreements to start increasingcapacity and developing new supply chains thatuphold adherence to high standards. Many of thesecountries already possess large reserves of criticalminerals and implement high environmental and laborstandards codified within their own laws. For example,working with close allies like Canada and Australia,mineral-rich countries with which the United Stateshas deep military ties, is an immediate way Americacan insulate itself from overly concentrated criticalmineral supply chains."