What are they and how are they used?
4 minutes of reading
As we mentioned in our previous KnowledgePart of Australia's Critical Minerals Strategy was to review and update Australia's list of critical minerals.
That process has now been completed, with the list of critical minerals expanded to 30 minerals, including five new entries (fluorine, molibendum, arsenic, selenium and tellurium) and the removal of helium.
A new list of strategic minerals has also been created, initially composed of six minerals (copper, nickel, aluminum, phosphorus, tin and zinc).
Key takeaways
- Where he update and ministerial announcement They state that the lists will be used to allocate appropriate support to these resources and ensure government attention, projects for these minerals are expected to attract government funding and political support in the future.
- Australia's regulators, including the Foreign Investment Review Board and the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, are already focused on emerging critical minerals markets and are expected to extend that scrutiny to new minerals added to the list.
- This is likely to lead to updates to the various lists of critical minerals in Australia's state and territory strategies and policies, so that over time this is also likely to translate into assistance for new minerals at state and territory level .
Critical minerals
Australia's critical minerals list was last updated on March 16, 2022.
The criteria used to determine the minerals listed in this review was to identify minerals:
- essential to modern technologies, economies or national security, specifically priority technologies set out in the Critical Minerals Strategy (including batteries and battery components, rare earth permanent magnets, catalysts for hydrogen production, semiconductors for microchips and energy solar photovoltaics, defense technologies and high performance alloys and metals)
- for which Australia has moderate to high geological resource potential
- in demand from our strategic international partners
- that are vulnerable to supply chain disruption.
The resulting updated list of critical minerals as of December 16, 2023 (with new additions highlighted) is:
| High purity alumina | Antimony | Arsenic |
|---|---|---|
| Beryllium | Bismuth | Chrome |
| Cobalt | Fluorine | Gallium |
| Germanium | Graphite | Hafnium |
| Indian | Lithium | Magnesium |
| Manganese | we must be humiliated | Niobium |
| Platinum group elements (platinum, palladium, rhodium, ruthenium, iridium and osmium) | Rare earth elements (yttrium, lanthanum, cerium, praseodymium, neodymium, promethium, samarium, europium, gadolinium, terbium, dysprosium, holmium, erbium, thulium, ytterbium and lutetium) | rhenium |
| Scandium | Selenium | Silicon |
| tantalum | Tellurium | Titanium |
| Tungsten | Vanadium | Zirconium |
Applications for the minerals (as described in the update and shown below) are in the areas of technology (particularly net zero transition applications) and defense, in line with existing strategic priorities:
| Arsenic | It is used as an alloying agent in many industrial processes. It also has some defense applications. Importantly, high-purity metallic arsenic is used to make semiconductors. |
|---|---|
| Fluorine | used in batteries and for the manufacture of semiconductors and photovoltaic solar cells. Its main use is as a flux material for the manufacture of steel and aluminum. |
| we must be humiliated | It is used to increase the strength, hardness and corrosion resistance of alloys. Molybdenum alloys are widely used as a refractory metal in chemical applications and in structural steel, aircraft and automobile parts. |
| Selenium | Used in copper and steel alloys, manganese metal production and solar cells and photocells. |
| Tellurium | It is used to produce thin film solar cells and thermoelectric devices for cooling and power generation. It can also be used as an alloy for steel, copper and lead. |
Australia has known resources of most of these minerals, or potential sources of production through the recovery of by-products from the processing of other minerals.
In line with the criteria, including reference to the needs of Australia's strategic partners, the list also achieves greater alignment with the current lists of critical minerals in the United States, the European Union, India, Japan and the Republic from Korea.
Strategic materials
The review process also highlighted the need to establish a "watch list" of other minerals that would meet the criteria to be a critical mineral, but have more established supply chains that are not currently vulnerable to disruptions and are considered sufficiently solid to meet current demand.
The initial list of Australian strategic materials consists of:
| Aluminum | Copper | Nickel |
| Phosphorous | Tin | Zinc |
There have been some calls for consultation for these materials to be included on the list of critical minerals. However, it appears that the Government sought a way to recognize their importance without signaling an immediate need to support their development (while continuing to monitor any potential need for support for these minerals in the future).
Future reviews
To ensure each list remains fit for purpose, the update notes that reviews will occur at least every three years. However, the Government has sensibly signaled that it may review the lists more frequently in response to significant changes in technology, trade, domestic capacity or geopolitical developments.
The Critical Minerals Strategy itself will be thoroughly reviewed in 2026, with annual reports on its objectives due in the meantime, so the critical minerals sector is sure to be a major area of โโgovernment focus, funding and policy change in the coming years. .
