The Australian government will host a geopolitical summit this week that, for the first time, places critical minerals and their supply chains at the centre of the federal government discussion both for the country and the Indo-Pacific region.
Co-hosted with the International Energy Agency, The Sydney Energy Forum will focus on the key technologies to decarbonisation and zeroes in on building supply chains for electric vehicles, lithium ion batteries and critical minerals, especially lithium, nickel, rare earths, graphite, manganese, and cobalt.
The summit will open with an address from Australia’s new Prime Minister, The Honourable Anthony Albanese MP and hear from key political figures in the region including:
- Secretary Jennifer Granholm – Dept of Energy, United States
- Koichi Hagiuda, Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry, Japan
- Raj Kumar Singh, Minister of Power and Minister of New and Renewable Energy, India
- H.E. Arifin Tasrif, Indonesian Minister for Energy and Mineral Resources, Republic of Indonesia
Delegates from 28 countries in the Indo-Pacific region will meet in Sydney with Benchmark Mineral Intelligence and BP the only invitees from the UK.
Benchmark’s CEO, Simon Moores, has been invited to speak on batteries and critical minerals on day one together with Lynas CEO, Amanda Lacaze, Panasonic Energy’s Chief Technology Officer, Dr Shoichiro Watanabe, and Dr Alan Bye, Managing Director, Imvelo.
DR DR FATIH BIROL, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF CO-HOST, INTERNATIONAL ENERGY AGENCY SAID:
“…the Indo-Pacific has an important role to play in the clean energy transition. The region is the home of significant emerging economies with fast-growing energy demand, as well as the vast majority of the world’s solar PV module and battery manufacturing and assembly.
The region is also a major resource holder and producer of the critical minerals that clean energy transitions will rely on – including lithium, nickel, cobalt, graphite and copper.
If critical minerals are to be an enabler, and not a bottleneck, to energy transitions, governments in the Indo-Pacific must work together with producers and consumers to ensure supply chains are able to expand to meet growing demand, consistent with net zero ambitions.”
SIMON MOORES, CEO, BENCHMARK STATED:
“We are now in a world where geopolitical instability is making governments question their global supply chains and the very building blocks on which their economies have been built.
Forward looking governments have quickly realised that to get a grip on decarbonisation and invest in future industries, the supply chains for key technologies must be rebuilt.
As we have stressed time and again, the lithium ion battery and rise of gigafactories is the megatrend of our times.
Without lithium ion battery cells, at low cost, at scale and that are readily available, governments will not be able to achieve their decarbonisation goals and they would forgo a major role in future economic engines of electric vehicles and energy storage systems.
If electric vehicles are lithium ion batteries, then lithium ion batteries are mining.
Those that plan ambitious decarbonisation goals must align with those that build the technology and, crucially, the key actors that are building these new supply chains from scratch.
Those that most effectively bridge this great raw material disconnect between mine and market will be the quickest and most significant beneficiaries of the energy storage revolution, both in environmental and economic terms.
This is the message we will carry into The Sydney Energy Forum.
I have been in the critical minerals business since 2006, and this is the first time I have seen such a high level geopolitical gathering that is so specifically focused on decarbonisation technologies and the critical minerals that create them.
It is our honour at Benchmark to be invited to speak by Prime Minister Albanese’s Australian government.”
https://www.benchmarkminerals.com/membership/australia-hosts-geopolitical-summit-on-critical-mineral-supply-chains-benchmark-invited-to-speak/
