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I am not sure what a best possible result would be - but “Go Al!!”

https://thewest.com.au/business/min...-was-post-coronavirus-recovery-ng-b881577355z

Bankwest chief economist Alan Langford makes pitch for batteries to power WA’s post-coronavirus recovery



Josh ZimmermanThe West Australian
Monday, 15 June 2020 2:00AM
Josh Zimmerman



WA has 35 of the raw materials that make up the lithium ion batteries that are at the forefront of storing renewably generated electricity.


WA should look to batteries to power the State’s post-coronavirus recovery.

That will be the message from Bankwest chief economist Alan Langford when he fronts a parliamentary committee investigating the economic impact of COVID-19 on Wednesday.

Although the price of iron ore has soared in the midst of the pandemic, Mr Langford will warn the State cannot pin its future prosperity on a single commodity — especially one vulnerable to a recovery in Brazilian production disrupted by the virus and the threat of a trade war with China.

“The exposure of the WA economy to exports of a single commodity to a single market should not be ignored,” Mr Langford said.
“And the outlook for the next biggest commodity export from WA — liquefied natural gas from the State’s vast offshore reserves — is clouded by a low oil price against which most export prices are calculated, not to mention burgeoning exports from the US.”

Mr Langford said subdued oil and gas prices endangered the viability of Woodside’s mooted Scarborough and Browse developments, worth a combined $47 billion, and projects the WA Government hoped would result in thousands of jobs.
Against that backdrop, and despite the pandemic wreaking global upheaval, last month Bloomberg predicted demand for lithium-ion battery capacity — primarily for electric vehicles — to grow tenfold by 2030.

“Whereas WA’s two biggest exports face medium to long-term challenges in the ever more carbon-constrained world that will emerge from COVID-19’s devastating legacy, the luckiest State in the lucky country also possesses all 35 or so of the raw materials that make up the lithium ion batteries that are at the forefront of storing renewably generated electricity,” Mr Langford said.
The prices of both spodumene and lithium hydroxide, the first step along the refinement chain for batteries, have halved since their 2018 peaks. Mr Langford said it was expected that trend would reverse from next year.
“As and when demand for li-ion batteries takes off, the outlook for the prices of key feedstocks in the battery supply chain will get dragged along for the ride,” he said, adding exploration for other base metals required in batteries — including cobalt, copper and nickel — was “booming” prior to the steep fall in the value of spodumene.

“Battery makers are desperate to lessen their reliance on cobalt from a troubled Democratic Republic of Congo source that accounts for around 50 per cent of global supply,” Mr Langford said.

“The weaning of battery makers’ reliance on cobalt from the DRC involves both sourcing it from elsewhere and tweaking of their technologies, the latter of which is very likely to incorporate more nickel in the process at the expense of cobalt,” he said.
“Either way, the coming battery revolution was benefiting exploration for both nickel and cobalt in WA until earlier this year. And will do so again, as the post-COVID world unleashes, by hook or by crook, meaningful action to combat climate change.