Opinion piece – WA critical to Net Zero goal
In our quest to build a better future, one of the things that makes it possible to reach so high is what lies beneath our feet.
And in our continent, nowhere is that truer than in Western Australia.
That’s one of the messages I’ve taken to America this week, where we’ve been following up an important step we took in Japan earlier this year.
In May, Australia and the United States made history when we signed the Compact on Critical Minerals and Clean Energy.
This week in Washington, we have started building a stronger future as we work to turn words on a page into commercial realities.
On Monday, the inaugural meeting of the Australia-United States Taskforce on Critical Minerals was held.
Its responsibility is to expand reliable, responsible and secure global access to critical minerals that are the building blocks of the clean energy economy, which will be one of the great transformation points of the 21st century.
Then yesterday, a critical minerals roundtable brought together leaders from the Australian and American resources industry.
The success of our Critical Minerals Compact is not just a matter of our respective governments setting a goal – we need to make sure that our miners and our businesses have a seat at the table and a say in the process from the outset.
We want companies on board with the objective of expanding Australia’s role in the critical mineral supply chain, and engaged in the work of achieving it at home and in the US.
Australia’s goal is clear: to build end-to-end sustainable, reliable and transparent critical minerals supply chains globally, with a key focus on the US.
This is a transformative opportunity for Australia to meet our own net zero commitments, and create a new wave of manufacturing jobs across the country – with WA leading the way.
Australia and the US are partners in so many fields, and this is one area where Australia is uniquely positioned to do some heavy lifting.
We have the sustainable, reliable supply.
Thanks to WA, we are the world’s largest supplier of lithium.
We the fourth largest of cobalt and the third largest of rare earths.
We have shovel-ready projects ripe for investment.
We are also a stable democracy, with a skilled workforce and strong environmental, social and governance credentials.
Our industry has deep expertise at extracting minerals and a proven track record as a reliable producer and exporter of energy and resources.
And, above all, we’re ambitious.
In order to become a nation that stands on our own two feet, we have to make things here.
It’s important we have a future built in Australia.
That is why we’re looking to strengthen our role in the supply chain with more value-adding.
To achieve these goals, we need to have better insights regarding the barriers and the missing links in the current US and Australian critical minerals supply chains.
That is why it has been so important to hear expert American perspectives during my visit to Washington.
Here at home, we are working hard to implement our own Critical Minerals Strategy which includes important investment vehicles like the Critical Minerals Facility.
The Facility provides financing to strategic critical minerals projects to support the energy transition and to secure and diversify supply chains.
Today I am very pleased to announce that we are doubling the size of the Facility from $2 billion to $4 billion.
The expanded Facility will allow Australia to invest in projects unable to be fully financed by the market.
This means we can support projects that build onshore processing and refining, and draw in like-minded investments, including from the US.
And at every step along the way, one of the most crucial ingredients will be WA, driven by companies such as Lynas, Iluka, and Liontown Resources.
Since day one, backing WA to win in the world has been central to our agenda in Government.
What you’re making possible is an even bigger victory.
It’s not so much a case of how the West was won, but how the West will help us win the future.
This opinion piece was first published in The West Australian on Wednesday, 25 October 2023.