Western Australian Minister for Mines and Petroleum David Michael has emphasised the importance of attracting global investment in the state’s lithium sector.
Opening Paydirt’s 2024 Battery Minerals Conference in Perth yesterday, Michael said in less than a decade, WA had established a multi-billion-dollar battery and critical minerals processing industry.
“With a rich endowment of these minerals, I look forward to positioning Western Australia as a destination of choice for the responsible sourcing of future-facing commodities that will drive global decarbonisation efforts,” he said.
“I’m taking a keen interest in the minerals critical in their make-up, but of course I am also curious about the provenance of these minerals, given a typical EV requires six times the mineral inputs of a conventional car.”
The International Energy Agency estimates the average amount of mineral resources needed for a new unit of power generation has increased by 50 per cent since 2010, reflecting the rising uptake of renewables.
Michael said the challenge now is ensuring more global scale investments are made in WA to expand the state’s capacity in advanced critical minerals processing and battery chemical manufacturing.
“Our opportunity is to build upon the three lithium hydroxide refineries currently being commissioned or constructed by Tianqi, Albemarle and Covalent Lithium,” he said.
“At full capacity, these three refineries will produce up to 200,000 tonnes per annum, enough to power around four million electric vehicles.
“This would make Western Australia one of the world’s top producers of this ingredient that feeds into lithium-ion batteries.”
Albemarle has invested around $2 billion to build the world-leading Kemerton lithium hydroxide processing plant near Bunbury in the south west of WA.
Covalent Lithium’s refinery near Kwinana will receive about 45,000 tonnes of lithium hydroxide per year from the nearby Mount Holland lithium mine.
The Greenbushes operations, including its lithium mine and refinery, banked nearly $6.3 billion in profits last year.
These projects, alongside other emerging assets such as Liontown Resources’ Kathleen Valley project, present significant opportunities for WA to position itself as a major global player in the critical minerals space.
As net-zero targets approach, the state is certainly one to watch as it fully realises its critical minerals potential into the future.
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