RNU Poised to pounce on a global...

RNU Poised to pounce on a global scale

https://apo.org.au/sites/default/files/resource-files/2021-09/apo-nid314286.pdf

Australia’s potential in critical minerals
Critical minerals are a massive market opportunity for countries like Australia with commercial
quantities of 16 of the minerals used in solar panels and 10 of the elements required to build
lithium-ion batteries. Production of key minerals, such as graphite, lithium and cobalt, could
increase by over 500% by 2050, to meet the growing demand for clean energy technologies.76
Australia is ideally placed to feed this exponentially growing demand in the net zero economy,
with some of the largest reserves of lithium, copper, nickel and cobalt in the world, close access
to major producers of renewable technologies in Asia and the ability to deliver higher ESG
standards than competitors.77
Critical minerals also present Australia with a chance to move up the supply chain to massively
value add to our raw materials. For example, despite being the world's largest supplier of lithium
ore (spodumene), we are capturing only 0.53% of the lithium-ion battery value chain.78 Recent
remarks from Tesla indicated that if we were able to onshore process our lithium ore exports, we
could convert a trade revenue of US$100 million to US$1.7 billion.79
Investing in sustainable downstream refining and processing facilities for critical minerals, in
addition to their mining, would add significant value to our mining and industrial communities.
However, to fully capture the global markets, we need to ensure these processes are aligned
with international decarbonisation efforts. Fortunately, development of this market is already
underway with innovative local projects such as the Dubbo Project,80 Element 25,81 Sun
Metals,82 and Alpha HPA
83 developing unique sustainable processing solutions.
If done correctly, Australia’s ability to co-locate mining and processing facilities while powered
by low-cost renewables with good ESG practises, would provide our products with a distinct
economic, carbon and social due diligence advantage over other exporters like China and the
Congo that currently supply the vast majority of these critical minerals.84 The ability to process
key minerals and move down the value chain also provides sovereign capability, helping to
secure resilient supply chains for our trading partners while locking in economic and job
Beyond Zero Emissions | Export Powerhouse 18
creation opportunities.85,86,87
Interest is already gaining speed with South Korean companies LG
Energy Solution and POSCO investing over $1 billion into Australian critical minerals.88
The critical minerals sector will be vital for decarbonisation and the adoption of advanced clean
technologies. Australia’s abundance of high-demand minerals, coupled with our capacity to
electrify the mining and processing steps with cheap renewables, presents an immense
opportunity to fuel global markets while feeding our domestic industrial transition. They form a
critical part of the next generation of high value global trade. Our ability to invest and capture
these mineral resources and their downstream value chains will be pivotal to the success of
Australia as a green export powerhouse.