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does Labor’s Australian election victory mean for critical minerals, batteries, and EVs?","what-does-labors-australian-election-victory-mean-for-critical-minerals-and-evs","article/what-does-labors-australian-election-victory-mean-for-critical-minerals-and-evs",{"_uid":557,"date":558,"tags":559,"editor":563,"content":573,"excerpt":698,"featured":51,"reporter":699,"_editable":703,"component":704,"seo_title":553,"categories":705,"visibility":712,"author_company":49,"featured_image":713,"seo_description":698,"author_full_name":49,"author_job_title":49,"formattedDate":717,"formattedArticleDate":718},"f88ed147-698d-41ca-81f3-8e89bbfeab0a","2025-05-07 00:00",[560],{"slug":561,"name":562},"australia","Australia",[564],{"slug":565,"name":566,"content":567},"matthew-bird","Matthew Bird",{"job_title":568,"image":569,"bio":571,"linkedin":572},"Senior Editor - Supply Chains & Data Visualisation",{"filename":570},"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":574,"content":575},"doc",[576,583,598,603,608,613,620,625,637,642,655,663,668,673,678,683,688,693],{"type":577,"attrs":578,"content":579},"paragraph",{"textAlign":49},[580],{"text":581,"type":582},"Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has secured re-election with a majority win, giving his Labor party a clear mandate to continue with plans to bolster Australia’s domestic critical mineral mining and processing potential.","text",{"type":577,"attrs":584,"content":585},{"textAlign":49},[586,588,596],{"text":587,"type":582},"Last year, the ",{"text":589,"type":582,"marks":590},"Albanese government introduced a tax credit worth 10% for critical mineral processing",[591],{"type":592,"attrs":593},"link",{"href":594,"uuid":49,"anchor":49,"target":49,"linktype":595},"https://source.benchmarkminerals.com/article/what-does-australias-budget-mean-for-the-critical-minerals-industry","url",{"text":597,"type":582}," and refining costs (at an estimated cost of $4.5 billion) starting from the fiscal year 2027-2028, for up to ten years per project. The policy is designed to spur private investment into the sector. ",{"type":577,"attrs":599,"content":600},{"textAlign":49},[601],{"text":602,"type":582},"Albanese’s victory now gives prospective investors policy certainty ahead of the proposed July 2027 start date.",{"type":577,"attrs":604,"content":605},{"textAlign":49},[606],{"text":607,"type":582},"In the run up to the election, Prime Minister Albanese pledged further support for domestic projects, outlining an initial investment of AU$1.2 billion ($763 million) to establish a strategic reserve for 31 critical minerals. ",{"type":577,"attrs":609,"content":610},{"textAlign":49},[611],{"text":612,"type":582},"This would involve the government buying critical minerals or having the option to buy minerals at a certain price threshold, to provide price support to domestic projects which have come under pressure from low prices.",{"type":614,"attrs":615,"content":617},"heading",{"level":616,"textAlign":49},4,[618],{"text":619,"type":582},"Can Australia rival China as a processing powerhouse?",{"type":577,"attrs":621,"content":622},{"textAlign":49},[623],{"text":624,"type":582},"Australia’s strength lies in the upstream mining stage of the value chain, ranking as the biggest producer of mined lithium and the third largest source of mined rare earths supply in 2024, according to Benchmark analysis. ",{"type":626,"attrs":627},"blok",{"id":628,"body":629},"4c86fa56-ddf3-4941-9aa9-09a98236c588",[630],{"id":631,"_uid":632,"type":633,"_editable":634,"component":635,"fixed_height":636,"use_fixed_height":50,"fixed_height_mobile":636,"fixed_height_tablet":636},"23045858","i-5bae8764-917d-4510-9579-9232cbd72140","visualisation","\u003C!--#storyblok#{\"name\": \"ContentFlourish\", \"space\": \"\", \"uid\": \"i-5bae8764-917d-4510-9579-9232cbd72140\", \"id\": \"\"}-->","ContentFlourish","",{"type":577,"attrs":638,"content":639},{"textAlign":49},[640],{"text":641,"type":582},"Currently, the majority of Australia’s minerals are shipped to China for further processing, and the Albanese government has sought to leverage its resources to build out the domestic critical mineral processing industry, to position the country as a leading ex-China supplier of these minerals.",{"type":577,"attrs":643,"content":644},{"textAlign":49},[645,647,653],{"text":646,"type":582},"Notably, the ",{"text":648,"type":582,"marks":649},"Albanese government has led upstream financing efforts to counter China’s dominance over rare earths supply",[650],{"type":592,"attrs":651},{"href":652,"uuid":49,"anchor":49,"target":49,"linktype":595},"https://source.benchmarkminerals.com/article/australia-leads-upstream-rare-earth-financing-efforts",{"text":654,"type":582}," chains: projects in Australia received $1.7 billion in investment in 2024, amounting to 56% of the total share of global investment, according to the Benchmark Rare Earths Forecast.",{"type":626,"attrs":656},{"id":657,"body":658},"fa07747f-d55b-41a9-9671-e9c5d6000d25",[659],{"id":660,"_uid":661,"type":633,"_editable":662,"component":635,"fixed_height":636,"use_fixed_height":50,"fixed_height_mobile":636,"fixed_height_tablet":636},"23047812","i-784243d3-f290-404f-ba21-8b3f37e48f3e","\u003C!--#storyblok#{\"name\": \"ContentFlourish\", \"space\": \"\", \"uid\": \"i-784243d3-f290-404f-ba21-8b3f37e48f3e\", \"id\": \"\"}-->",{"type":577,"attrs":664,"content":665},{"textAlign":49},[666],{"text":667,"type":582},"However, Australian projects face challenges in remaining cost-competitive with China. Critical mineral processing is an energy-intensive process that requires considerable amounts of reagents. ",{"type":577,"attrs":669,"content":670},{"textAlign":49},[671],{"text":672,"type":582},"In January, China’s Tianqi Lithium and IGO halted construction work on a lithium hydroxide facility in Western Australia. The project came under pressure from a combination of cost overruns and low lithium prices.",{"type":614,"attrs":674,"content":675},{"level":616,"textAlign":49},[676],{"text":677,"type":582},"What are Labor’s EV policies?",{"type":577,"attrs":679,"content":680},{"textAlign":49},[681],{"text":682,"type":582},"The Labor government passed the New Vehicle Efficiency Standard (NVES) in 2024, which came into effect in January this year. The policy is designed to encourage automakers to increase the supply of more fuel-efficient and low-emission vehicles, such as hybrids and electric vehicles (EVs).",{"type":577,"attrs":684,"content":685},{"textAlign":49},[686],{"text":687,"type":582},"The NVES sets annual CO₂ emission targets for new vehicles, obliging automakers to meet these targets at a fleet level. For passenger cars and SUVs, the target starts at 141 grams of CO₂ per kilometer in 2025, decreasing to 58 g/km by 2029.",{"type":614,"attrs":689,"content":690},{"level":616,"textAlign":49},[691],{"text":692,"type":582},"How does the new government view BESS?",{"type":577,"attrs":694,"content":695},{"textAlign":49},[696],{"text":697,"type":582},"On the campaign trail, Prime Minister Albanese also announced a AU$2.3 billion ($647 million) initiative to subsidise battery energy storage systems (BESS) for homeowners. The policy aims to increase BESS sales to one million more households and small businesses by 2030, reducing the cost by approximately 30%. ","Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has secured re-election with a majority win, giving his Labor party a clear mandate to continue with plans to bolster Australia’s domestic critical mineral mining and processing potential. Last year, the Albanese government introduced a tax credit worth 10% for critical mineral processing and refining costs (at an estimated cost […]",[700],{"slug":565,"name":566,"content":701},{"job_title":568,"image":702,"bio":571,"linkedin":572},{"filename":570},"\u003C!--#storyblok#{\"name\": \"article\", \"space\": \"\", \"uid\": \"f88ed147-698d-41ca-81f3-8e89bbfeab0a\", \"id\": \"\"}-->","article",[706,709],{"slug":707,"name":708},"batteries","Batteries",{"slug":710,"name":711},"critical-minerals","Critical Minerals","private",{"id":49,"alt":636,"name":636,"focus":636,"title":636,"source":636,"filename":714,"copyright":636,"fieldtype":715,"meta_data":716,"is_external_url":51},"https://a.storyblok.com/f/287943243085208/7a550688f7/bm-shutterstock-2496979599-1.jpg","asset",{"alt":636,"title":636,"source":636,"copyright":636},"May 07, 2025","7th May 2025",[],[],1789982567251]