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does Australia’s budget mean for critical minerals?","what-does-australias-budget-mean-for-the-critical-minerals-industry","article/what-does-australias-budget-mean-for-the-critical-minerals-industry",{"_uid":557,"date":558,"tags":559,"editor":566,"content":576,"excerpt":719,"featured":51,"reporter":720,"_editable":724,"component":725,"seo_title":553,"categories":726,"visibility":733,"author_company":49,"featured_image":734,"seo_description":719,"author_full_name":49,"author_job_title":49,"formattedDate":739,"formattedArticleDate":740},"47d71f58-1237-43f2-ba98-89c0affdd201","2024-05-17 00:00",[560,563],{"slug":561,"name":562},"australia","Australia",{"slug":564,"name":565},"policy","Policy",[567],{"slug":568,"name":569,"content":570},"matthew-bird","Matthew Bird",{"job_title":571,"image":572,"bio":574,"linkedin":575},"Senior Editor - Supply Chains & Data Visualisation",{"filename":573},"https://a.storyblok.com/f/287943243085208/512x512/14738033ec/matthew-bird.jpeg","Matthew writes, edits and produces content for Benchmark Intelligence and Benchmark Source across the whole mine to grid supply chain. He also acts as a liaison to the press. He has a PhD in electrochemistry from the University of Nottingham.","https://www.linkedin.com/in/birdmatthew/",{"type":577,"content":578},"doc",[579,586,591,638,645,650,655,660,665,670,675,680,685,690,695,700],{"type":580,"attrs":581,"content":582},"paragraph",{"textAlign":49},[583],{"text":584,"type":585},"Australia unveiled its annual budget this week, which includes a significant package of funding designed to boost the development of its critical minerals sector.","text",{"type":580,"attrs":587,"content":588},{"textAlign":49},[589],{"text":590,"type":585},"Under the ‘Future Made in Australia’ initiative, the Australian government will provide an estimated $19.7 billion (US$13.2 billion) over ten years to cement the country’s position as a key supplier of critical minerals for the global energy transition and support stated ambitions of establishing the country as a renewable energy “superpower.”",{"type":580,"attrs":592,"content":593},{"textAlign":49},[594,596,604,606,612,614,620,622,628,630,636],{"text":595,"type":585},"Australia is home to some of the largest known reserves of critical minerals globally. As of 2024, ",{"text":597,"type":585,"marks":598},"Benchmark data",[599],{"type":600,"attrs":601},"link",{"href":602,"uuid":49,"anchor":49,"target":49,"linktype":603},"https://www.benchmarkminerals.com/forecasts/","url",{"text":605,"type":585}," shows that Australia ranks as the foremost producer of ",{"text":607,"type":585,"marks":608},"lithium",[609],{"type":600,"attrs":610},{"href":611,"uuid":49,"anchor":49,"target":49,"linktype":603},"https://www.benchmarkminerals.com/forecasts/lithium/reports",{"text":613,"type":585},", second largest source of mined ",{"text":615,"type":585,"marks":616},"rare earths",[617],{"type":600,"attrs":618},{"href":619,"uuid":49,"anchor":49,"target":49,"linktype":603},"https://www.benchmarkminerals.com/forecasts/rare-earths/reports/",{"text":621,"type":585}," supply, fourth largest producer of refined ",{"text":623,"type":585,"marks":624},"nickel",[625],{"type":600,"attrs":626},{"href":627,"uuid":49,"anchor":49,"target":49,"linktype":603},"https://www.benchmarkminerals.com/forecasts/nickel/reports/",{"text":629,"type":585},", and fourth largest of ",{"text":631,"type":585,"marks":632},"cobalt",[633],{"type":600,"attrs":634},{"href":635,"uuid":49,"anchor":49,"target":49,"linktype":603},"https://www.benchmarkminerals.com/forecasts/cobalt/reports/",{"text":637,"type":585},".",{"type":639,"attrs":640,"content":642},"heading",{"level":641,"textAlign":49},4,[643],{"text":644,"type":585},"What does the budget include?",{"type":639,"attrs":646,"content":647},{"level":641,"textAlign":49},[648],{"text":649,"type":585},"Measures welcomed but further clarity required",{"type":580,"attrs":651,"content":652},{"textAlign":49},[653],{"text":654,"type":585},"As the global energy transition accelerates, Australia is embroiled in national debate regarding how the country’s position in clean energy supply chains should materialise. ",{"type":580,"attrs":656,"content":657},{"textAlign":49},[658],{"text":659,"type":585},"Having lost its automotive industry in the last decade, many want to see Australia leverage its critical mineral resources to build out a domestic lithium ion battery and electric vehicle manufacturing sector.",{"type":580,"attrs":661,"content":662},{"textAlign":49},[663],{"text":664,"type":585},"“The argument against going downstream is that Australia can’t compete with lower-cost competitors in Asia, and so shouldn’t bother trying,” said Cameron Perks, principal lithium consultant at Benchmark. “To me it seems logical to pursue some value-add to mining as a compromise, but going all the way to the battery level will prove difficult.”",{"type":580,"attrs":666,"content":667},{"textAlign":49},[668],{"text":669,"type":585},"While the refundable tax offset for processing critical minerals will be welcomed as an important step in retaining value in Australia, Benchmark notes several points that will require further clarification, including: which stage of the value chain will attract the credit, the eligibility of spodumene concentrate, how foreign (specifically Chinese) ownership will affect eligibility, and whether the 10% credit will be sufficient.",{"type":639,"attrs":671,"content":672},{"level":641,"textAlign":49},[673],{"text":674,"type":585},"Low prices increase pressure on federal government",{"type":580,"attrs":676,"content":677},{"textAlign":49},[678],{"text":679,"type":585},"Despite its relative abundance of battery minerals, Australia’s critical minerals sector has come under pressure from sharp declines in critical mineral prices in the last 12 months. Australian miners have struggled to compete with supply originating from other regions due to higher operating costs (opex). ",{"type":580,"attrs":681,"content":682},{"textAlign":49},[683],{"text":684,"type":585},"An unprecedented ramp up of new nickel supply from Indonesia has led close to 24,000 tonnes of Australian nickel to be taken out of the market since the beginning of 2024, while lithium’s low price environment too has claimed casualties in Australia so far this year.",{"type":580,"attrs":686,"content":687},{"textAlign":49},[688],{"text":689,"type":585},"A growing list of mine closures has ratcheted up pressure on the Australian government to step up its financial support for the critical minerals sector. ",{"type":580,"attrs":691,"content":692},{"textAlign":49},[693],{"text":694,"type":585},"In February, the Federal government classified nickel as a “critical mineral” to open up access to $2.7 billion of financing, while the Western Australian government announced a 50% royalty rebate for an 18-month period if nickel prices fell below $20,000 per tonne. ",{"type":639,"attrs":696,"content":697},{"level":641,"textAlign":49},[698],{"text":699,"type":585},"Join us at Giga APAC 2024",{"type":580,"attrs":701,"content":702},{"textAlign":49},[703,708,715],{"text":704,"type":585,"marks":705},"Discussions on Asia Pacific’s battery market will continue at Benchmark’s ",[706],{"type":707},"italic",{"text":709,"type":585,"marks":710},"Giga APAC 2024",[711,714],{"type":600,"attrs":712},{"href":713,"uuid":49,"anchor":49,"target":49,"linktype":603},"https://benchmarkevents.benchmarkminerals.com/gigaapac24",{"type":707},{"text":716,"type":585,"marks":717}," conference being held September 11-12 at the Ritz Carlton in Perth, Australia.",[718],{"type":707},"Australia unveiled its annual budget this week, which includes a significant package of funding designed to boost the development of its critical minerals sector. Under the ‘Future Made in Australia’ initiative, the Australian government will provide an estimated $19.7 billion (US$13.2 billion) over ten years to cement the country’s position as a key supplier of […]",[721],{"slug":568,"name":569,"content":722},{"job_title":571,"image":723,"bio":574,"linkedin":575},{"filename":573},"\u003C!--#storyblok#{\"name\": \"article\", \"space\": \"\", \"uid\": \"47d71f58-1237-43f2-ba98-89c0affdd201\", \"id\": \"\"}-->","article",[727,728,731,732],{"slug":631,"name":115},{"slug":729,"name":730},"critical-minerals","Critical Minerals",{"slug":607,"name":8},{"slug":623,"name":151},"private",{"id":49,"alt":735,"name":735,"focus":735,"title":735,"source":735,"filename":736,"copyright":735,"fieldtype":737,"meta_data":738,"is_external_url":51},"","https://a.storyblok.com/f/287943243085208/0e98b17d9b/bm-australia-flags.jpg","asset",{"alt":735,"title":735,"source":735,"copyright":735},"May 17, 2024","17th May 2024",[],[],1790082819222]