Brilliant my 246shop!
Thank you (but I’ll have to wait till after midnight to turn on my light bulb.)
The Tendinewa processing site has seemed like a done deal for a while now, and given that that processing plant location was surely a key issue in the stage one Wood analysis to “finalise trade off studies and “inform” a preferred development pathway” maybe that news is truly imminent?
It essentially says the tax credit scheme is not enough.
…here’s an excerpt the report :
… “Subsidies alone won’t overcome the challenges facing the sector, and industry alone can’t overcome state-backed market manipulation.
In 2023–24, the government committed significant investments into major critical minerals projects ($400 million in loans to Alpha HPA; $840 million in loans and grants to the Arafura Nolans project) and conditionally approved $185 million in loans for Renascor’s Siviour graphite project (although that may be revised).
Those are huge loans, and we can expect only a few more in the near term.
The budget indicates that the government’s critical minerals investment agencies—the Critical Minerals Facility, the Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility and Export Finance Australia—are approaching their limits.
In a capital-intensive sector, the government has committed more than $1.2 billion to a small number of projects, but massive loans alone can’t build this sector and quickly diversify supply chains.
The government will need to invest more broadly through smaller loans at the earlier stages of project development. Those projects are riskier but could more quickly attract private capital. That would also link to other government initiatives, including $566 million in exploration funding and $182.7 million (over eight years) to speed up regulatory approvals.
Grahan’s references to NAIF are interesting in the light of the point that NAIF doesn’t have ‘ too much’ left?
cheers
AVL Price at posting:
1.6¢ Sentiment: None Disclosure: Held
(20min delay)