State backing for shared demonstration facilities would overcome a significant hurdle for junior mining companies trying to bring critical minerals projects online, a key vanadium proponent says.

Multicom Resources chief executive officer Shaun McCarthy was commenting on a pre-election push by the Association of Mining and Exploration Companies (AMEC) for government support for such demonstration facilities and multi-user processing hubs in Queensland.

In developing projects like Multicom’s Saint Elmo vanadium project in North West Queensland, he said there was a strong emphasis on metallurgical studies and mineral processing techniques to optimise economics.

“With the support from government, access to demonstration plant facilities for junior mining companies would provide additional de-risking of various elements of the project’s viability, which is particularly relevant to the current strategy of extracting critical minerals from undeveloped, geological formations,” Mr McCarthy said.

Having a shared facility would allow multiple parties to combine experience and expertise to find the best overall solutions for extracting minerals from particular ore bodies, he said.

This would ultimately accelerate the pathway for mines being developed, particularly in new mining regions.

Establishing a standalone demonstration plant, on the other hand, could take up to 12 months and cost individual resource companies millions of dollars.

“The great thing about a demonstration plant is that it could be located anywhere,” Mr McCarthy said.

“There are considerable benefits to locating it in an established industrial area with access to the necessary utilities, consumables and expertise.

“Demonstration plants could also be designed to be modular and mobile, meaning they could be relocated and modified to suit the needs of different projects.”

AMEC’s submission to parties in the running for the upcoming Queensland election is wide-ranging but includes a strong focus on mineral processing and the resources sector value chain.

AMEC Queensland manager Kate Dickson said it was crucial that Australia did not simply act as ‘the world’s quarry’ and miss out on the opportunity to add value through processing.

She said AMEC was urging the government to take a long-term view of the industry and put skin in the game by investing in processing initiatives, particularly for new economy minerals – where it could be a game changer.

The Julia Creek cluster of vanadium projects was an example where a common user facility to investigate effective extraction processes could help bring new operations online, Ms Dickson said.

AMEC’s pre-election submission includes calls to:

(Read the full AMEC submission HERE)