The Australian Government has authorised over $50 million in funding to accelerate the development of critical minerals projects that will help diversify supply chains, enhance local downstream processing capacity, and support new jobs and regional development.
Minister for Resources and Northern Australia Madeleine King stated that the projects will accelerate the growth of Australia’s critical minerals industry and assist Australia and its export partners in lowering emissions and meeting net-zero commitments by 2050.
“The successful projects will create jobs and opportunities across regional Australia and help Australia realise its ambitions to be a clean-energy superpower,” Minister King said.
According to Minister King, the Critical Minerals Development Program grants will fund 13 projects, including proposals to provide crucial inputs to lithium-ion batteries for electric vehicles and to assist supply chains for advanced manufacturing for aerospace, medical, energy, and defence applications.
“The grants will support Australia’s new Critical Minerals Strategy, to be released shortly and which will outline how Australia can capture the significant opportunity of growing its critical minerals processing sector,” Minister King noted.
“Australia has remarkable potential to meet the increasing global demand for the critical minerals needed for clean energy technologies, such as electric vehicles and batteries, as the world moves to decarbonise,” the Minister added.
The successful projects are located in:
Western Australia
- Australian Energy Storage Solutions Pty Ltd was awarded $5.5 million for a pilot project to establish Australia’s first Precursor Cathode Active Material manufacturing plant in Kwinana;
- IGO Ltd will receive $4.6 million to assist its integrated Downstream Nickel-Cobalt Refinery in Kwinana, which will generate high-value nickel-cobalt-manganese precursor cathode active material;
- Tungsten Metals Group Pty Ltd was awarded $1.2 million for the production of Ferrotungsten Powders for advanced manufacturing in aerospace, medical, energy, and defence industries;
- International Graphite Ltd will receive $4.7 million to assist the International Graphite WA Mine to Market Battery Graphite Materials Project;
- Northern Minerals Ltd was awarded $5.9 million to support its Browns Range Heavy Rare Earths Project at Halls Creek;
- Tungsten Mining NL will receive $1 million to support test work for its Mount Mulgine Tungsten Project;
- Magnium Australia Pty Ltd will receive $6.25 million to commercialise CSIRO-patented technology for the clean extraction of magnesium metal, as well as a Magnesium Refinery Pilot Plant in Collie.
New South Wales
- Australian Strategic Materials Ltd will receive $6.5 million for its Dubbo Project, which will assist in mining, separation and refining, and production of important minerals such as neodymium, praseodymium, dysprosium, terbium, zirconium, niobium, and hafnium;
- Clareville Pty Ltd will receive $2.0 million for testing and scaling up their innovative flotation separation additive, which boosts recovery of key critical minerals such as lithium, cobalt, and vanadium by 50% while causing no increase in carbon emissions or environmental concerns;
- Ecograf Ltd will get $2.9 million to support a graphite qualification plant in Lucas Heights.
Queensland
- Queensland Pacific Metals Ltd was awarded $5 million for the engineering and design of phase one of a full-scale refinery for its Townsville Energy Chemicals Hub;
- High Purity Quartz Ltd will receive $1.2 million to assist in a pre-feasibility study for a project to create a solar PV grade quartz sand processing plant and a silicon metal production facility in Townsville to start solar PV cell manufacturing;
- Evolution Mining Ltd will receive $2.2 million to assist Ernest Henry Operations in recovering cobalt from mine waste.
