Battery minerals claim Diggers and Dealers limelight

Australia’s dominant annual mining conference, the Diggers & Dealers Forum in the gold capital of Kalgoorlie, has seen for the first time the thriving gold sector outdone in presentation numbers by battery minerals, particularly lithium and the growing quest for rare earths. Despite a bigger shortage of available accommodation due to increased mining project demand, the conference was able to match last year’s record attendance of 2,700. The main issue for this annual event is the perennial problem of restricted accommodation in the district being amplified by the increasing number of fly-in, fly out workers taking up room and BnB accommodation. Copper again features well on the program, and one of the Queensland projects to draw attention will be Carnaby Resources’ Greater Duchess project, south of Mount Isa, where the resource picture for copper-gold deposits continues to grow and has just added a farm-in on Rio Tinto’s Devoncourt property in the same region. Managing director Rob Watkins presents the company on Tuesday morning. Keynote speaker Dr Linda Yueh, an economist, writer and broadcaster, is a Fellow in Economics at Oxford University, an Adjunct Professor of Economics at London Business School and has been a Visiting Professor at the London School of Economics and Peking University, as well as an adviser to Britain’s Board of Trade. Economist and Diggers and Dealers keynote speaker Dr Linda Yueh Dr Yueh stressed that China would remain a major supplier in processed minerals, particularly rare earths, battery minerals and the electric vehicle market. It currently provides 80 per cent of the world’s batteries and even with expansion elsewhere this may drop only 10 per cent. China was on the brink of becoming a middle-income country and it needs to push its technology frontiers further. It is also looking at the green wave and showing more interest in renewable energy. The United States, knowing China’s dominance in rare earths production, is looking for an increase of 600 percent in rare earths for its use and it is pushing rare earths exploration both stateside and elsewhere. Dr Yueh said while there were many countries suffering debt stress there would be major changes in coming years and this could see many more countries with stronger middle-class growth, particularly in Asia. There were countries like those in Europe wanting to impose ESG conditions for mining and processing for a greener environment and others like the Republic Party that wants to see a browner forum to ensure projects can thrive. She said there was a situation where achieving a greener environment would require a greater amount of minerals production. She cited the nickel sector for battery metals demand perhaps requiring an extra 800 million tonnes of metal, which will be difficult with the current situation, and this may be assisted by mining seabed nickel deposits like those that exist in the Pacific. Diggers and Dealers chair Jim Walker. Australian Associate Professor Simon Michaux at the Geological Survey of Finland told Sky News recently: A lot of "exotic minerals and metals are needed to be able to manufacture electric vehicles.” He singled out nickel metal having a future demand of roughly 970 million tonnes global for electric vehicle production as part of the net zero target of many nations, including Australia. He estimated current annualised global output of nickel metal at around 2.5 million tonnes. “Hopes and dreams are not good plans,” he said, adding that Scandinavian countries and others are waking up to this, particularly since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine which has affected global hydrocarbon prices and also metals. Opening the conference, Diggers & Dealers chairman Jim Walker stressed that the forum was going to devote support to a core learning foundation to advance student learning and also the Christine Foster Memorial Scholarship, named after a Kalgoorlie educated mining engineer who had supported mining education but died in an accident in 2000. Image at top of page: A record attendance of 2,700 at the 2022 Diggers and Dealers was matched as of event opening this year

Battery minerals claim Diggers and Dealers limelight

Industry Queensland

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