Grants to power up critical minerals work

Three ground-breaking Queensland projects have scored Australian Government grants that aim to accelerate the development of the critical minerals industry. Alpha HPA has attracted $15.5 million to add new capabilities to the ultra-pure aluminium chemical plant being developed near Gladstone. The HPA First project will produce materials for the lithium-ion battery and synthetic sapphire markets. EQ Resources has been granted $6 million for tungsten production through recovering mine waste and reactivating open-pit mining in Mount Carbine. Lava Blue will receive up to $5.24 million for work to develop modular re-processing technology to recover high-purity alumina, magnesium and other critical minerals from vanadium mine waste. Welcoming the announcement on media, Lava Blue said the Critical Minerals Accelerator Initiative grant would be used at its Centre for Predictive Research into Speciality Materials (PRISM) at Redlands, Brisbane. "This project will use a sensor-rich processing environment and machine learning techniques to optimise processes for recovering aluminium and other minerals from vanadium processing waste," the company said. "Lava Blue will use this process to recover High Purity Alumina and investigate the recovery economics and concentration of other residual elements." Resources Minister Madeleine King said the government was delivering $50 million in grants to six key projects to unlock the potential of Australia’s critical minerals sector. “The grants will accelerate early and mid-stage projects, driving new investment in our processing and manufacturing capabilities as we develop our critical minerals sector," she said. “Australia has vast reserves of critical minerals which are crucial to batteries and electric vehicles, as well as the medical equipment production, defence, aerospace, automotive and agritech industries. “These junior projects, should they be successful in scaling up to full production, will help diversify global critical minerals supply chains.” Other successful grant recipients include Cobalt Blue Holdings, which has been awarded $15 million to accelerate a Definitive Feasibility Study for its Broken Hill Cobalt project. Global Advanced Metals has won $4 million for a tantalum and tin recovery plant at Greenbushes in Western Australia, increasing the volume of tantalum that is produced in Australia. Mineral Commodities has attracted $3.94 million funding for developing an Australian integrated graphite ore-to-battery anodes business, producing battery grade graphite, based in Munglinup, Western Australia. Ms King said the six grants would support more than 500 new jobs in regional and northern Australia.

Grants to power up critical minerals work

Industry Queensland

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