Speaking of Sam, he's spoken in AFR article:
Australia seeks Japan’s help to be critical minerals ‘superpower’
Michael Smith
North Asia correspondent
Apr 21, 2023 – 3.27pm Tokyo |
Australian critical mineral producers say Japan offers crucial capital and a growing market for their products at a time when the federal government is promoting investment from “like-minded” countries instead of dominant player China.A delegation of Australian critical minerals companies visiting Tokyo this week said they were optimistic about Japan’s ability to replicate the huge investments it has made in Australian gas and iron ore over the decades, but they also warned it was pointless trying to compete with China.
“We hear a lot about competing with China, but I don’t think there is competition. I just don’t think we can compete, because we are playing a different game,” said Sam Riggall, chief executive of nickel and cobalt group Sunrise Energy Metals. He was referring to Australia’s high operating and ESG standards.
“When people say do we need to block China from investing in Australia, I don’t think it’s an issue. Most Chinese companies don’t consider Australia a good investment destination for these metals because they don’t want to incur the cost of doing it properly.”
The Austrade-led mission to Japan comes at a time when the Albanese government wants to encourage the development of processing capabilities in Australia.
It will soon release a critical minerals strategy to address national interest concerns over China’s dominance of supply chains for minerals like rare earths. While delegations have been visiting Japan and South Korea since before the pandemic, those markets are taking on new significance as government policies increasingly seek to exclude China.
“Japan has been investing in Australia for other 60 years now, developing the iron ore sector, coal and natural gas. They understand Australia as an investment jurisdiction,” said Andrew Penkethman, chief executive of Perth-based cobalt miner Ardea Resources.
“We have seen an acceleration in co-operation between Australia and Japan particularly in the last 12 months, and Australia could be a superpower in the critical minerals space.”
There are hopes Japan will replicate in critical minerals the multibillion-dollar investments has made in Australian gas over the decades, although this is likely to be overshadowed by capital going into green energy projects such as hydrogen.
Japanese trading house Sojitz and the Japan Organisation for Metals and Energy Security last month agreed to invest $200 million in Lynas Rare Earths. Under that deal, the Australian supply will only be enough for about 30 per cent of Japan’s domestic demand.
Andrew Tong, executive manager of Cobalt Blue, said it was crunch time for the industry to meet the huge demand for critical minerals at a time when geopolitical changes were also influencing the market. He said Japan’s big trading houses were playing a critical role in investing in Australia.
“The benefit for Australia is we have all the raw materials, and the question is how far downstream do we go, and what partners do we bring in to do that. Our expertise is [in] digging it up and processing it to a certain point in the chain. Can we transition from the raw materials into a manufactured good?” Dr Tong said.
He also said the push to break China’s dominance of the industry meant governments should look at developing a two-tier pricing market that would separate low-cost product from materials delivered under stricter certification requirements.
However, the development of Japan’s EV industry has not been as strong as other car manufacturing hubs in Europe and the United States, potentially dampening demand for some products used to make car batteries.
”Japan faces a few challenges in that the commitment to electrification of automotive hasn’t been as fast as some parts of the world. It is hard for the industries to supply automotive to make large commitments to that shift,” Mr Riggall said.
China produces more than 80 per cent of the world’s separated rare earths and was the destination for 96 per cent of Australia’s lithium last year. China also has more than 70 per cent market share in the processing and manufacturing of other critical minerals like antimony, bismuth and tungsten.
Speaking to key allies and trading partners in Darwin last week, Resources Minister Madeleine King said China’s dominance of the critical minerals market was a strategic challenge.
The Australian critical minerals’delegation in Japan this week was the sixth since 2019. Australia and Japan signed a new partnership on critical minerals to help build secure supply chains when Prime Minister Fumio Kishida visited Perth last year.
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