Almost $22 million will be allocated to three key research projects to support the growth of Australia’s critical minerals industry.

The funding has been allocated to research projects headed up by members of the Critical Minerals Research and Development Hub, including the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO), CSIRO and Geoscience Australia.

“These new research projects will support Australia’s Critical Minerals Strategy and our ambition for Australia to be a global clean energy supplier,” Federal Minister for Resources Madeleine King said.

“The new research will help Australia further develop critical minerals and rare earths processes and encourage downstream processing to produce components for clean technologies.”

The $22 million in funding has been broken down into three amounts, with $13.9 million allocated to ANSTO, $5.2 million for CSIRO and $2.7 million for Geoscience Australia.

ANSTO’s research project involves accelerating the discovery, extraction and processing of rare earth elements from lower grade deposits.

CSIRO will be developing intellectual property and know-how to support downstream industries to produce high purity metals and materials, while Geoscience Australia will be developing opportunities of a domestic industry for critical minerals such as gallium, germanium and indium.

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