Critical minerals bring back manufacturing

Policy settings drafted to ensure a net-zero carbon future were dictating market conditions and helping fuel a resurgence in Australian manufacturing. That comes from the principal consultant of Boyd Willis Hydromet Consulting. The eponymous Boyd Willis, who’s a process engineer by trade and a metallurgist by practice, is also chief metallurgist for Queensland Pacific Metals. Queensland Pacific Metals has its sights set on developing a battery materials plant in Townsville, processing imported nickel laterite ores. Main image: QPM site at Lansdown west of Townsville Mr Willis has seen it all in post-war Australian manufacturing. The manufacturing boom and the '70s slide. The removal of tariffs in the '80s to the close of domestic car manufacturing in the 2000s in line with then PM Tony Abbott’s withdrawal of subsidies. Boyd Willis, Hydromet Consulting Global trends were now working in favour of Australian manufacturing, Mr Willis said. “The big opportunities today are certainly around the battery metals market, particularly electric vehicle batteries,” he said. “The key commodities associated with electric vehicle batteries are nickel, cobalt and manganese and then also lithium. Those are the projects that are really driving things currently. “I've recently been involved with several pilot plants and there's a lot of lithium and nickel/cobalt pilot plants and bench-scale test work underway. “The evidence is that this is a real global focus and I've heard it quoted that if every nickel project currently being dreamed of got up and running, there's still going to be a shortfall of materials for electric vehicle batteries in 10 years from now. “EV manufacturers are highly aware that the future supply of high-purity nickel and cobalt (and presumably lithium and manganese) precursors is tight, and that means these manufacturers more than ever are willing to make large investments into projects to ensure future supply. “This is a game changer in facilitating the decision to target a value-added product regardless of the upfront capex. It's highlighted by the willingness of LG, Posco and General Motors to make very significant investments into QPM even at the project development stage. “So there are huge opportunities out there and a lot of opportunity for projects that have been stalled for a long time to find new legs.” Placing processing plants near the critical minerals mining provinces like North-West Queensland was part of the equation, Mr Willis said. Companies like QPM were going one step further, he said. “Most new projects in this country that I'm aware of seem to be far more focused on producing a finished value-added product than in the past, in some cases even going so far as to import a raw material and to produce a value added product. “In effect, that's what Queensland Pacific Metals are doing because we're going to import ore from New Caledonia and process that to provide finished products into the electric vehicle battery market. “Companies have come to the realization that particularly for Australia, with our processing costs, the only way that you're going to end up with a viable project is to go through and produce a finished product. “One of the historic barriers, and it is typical of all mining proponents in particular, is there's been a fear of trying to raise enough money to cover the capital costs involved in achieving a finished product. “I think the, the focus now is changing not so much to what the upfront outlay is as to what the actual returns are going to be in the long term.”

Critical minerals bring back manufacturing

Industry Queensland

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