The Government wants to promote domestic raw materials projects.
As part of its Critical Minerals Strategy, the Australian government wants to support various projects in the critical raw materials sector with a sum of up to $33 million. This is now the second multi-million dollar investment in the resources sector, following the announcement to support other projects earlier this year. The critical materials are needed primarily for the country’s green energy transition and to implement national climate goals.
The funding will be allocated to subsidize 13 domestic resource projects with varying amounts, according to the government’s press release. Mining company Australian Strategic Minerals (ASM) will receive the highest amount of funding, $4.3 million, to extract rare earths and other critical minerals at its mine in New South Wales. The company Northern Minerals Limited will receive approximately $4 million to support the extraction of heavy rare earths such as dysprosium, scandium, and terbium. Additionally, the government also wants to invest in raw material recycling projects: Evolution Mining Limited, for example, will receive around $1.5 million for the recovery of cobalt from mine waste.
Australia has become an important supplier of raw materials behind industry-leader China. Domestic mining companies have been increasingly focusing on diversifying and expanding their supply chains recently. ASM, for example, is supplying a US company with rare earth alloys made from rare earths sourced in Vietnam and processed in South Korea and recently announced plans to supply these rare earth alloys to a US company.
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