Queensland's top geologist says North West Queensland will play an important role in the future development of critical minerals.
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As well as copper, rare earth elements, cobalt and vanadium were all key to the new economy and they were all found in abundance in our region, according to chief government geologist Tony Knight who was speaking at a recent industry breakfast in Mount Isa.
Mr Knight said the single biggest driver of change globally was population growth with a likely 10 billion people putting pressure on the planet's resources meaning the move to renewable energy was even more critically important than ever.
"The transfer from wood to coal took hundreds of years but the transition away from coal will take just decades," Mr Knight said.
He said the rapid development of new technology will hasten the transition but certain minerals such as the rare earth elements (REE) were critical for that economy and with China currently dominating the market, there were serious issues about security of supply.
"This is a risk and a threat but also an opportunity for Australia," he said.
Apart from investing in the green hydrogen industry he said our opportunity was electrification with copper playing an important role.
"(Battery) storage is the biggest opportunity in Queensland," Mr Knight said.
"There are also a lot of REEs in Queensland."
As a result the federal government drew up a critical minerals strategy in 2019 and opened a critical minerals facilitation office in 2020 and put in agreements with the US to secure supply while Queensland has offered exploration grants.
"That's been supported by $1.2b to help manufacturing," he said.
Tracking the provenance of minerals such as cobalt, also found in the North West, and used in EVs was also important to many places including the EU, with few countries willing to import from conflict zones or which use child labour.
"We can provide traceability via the blockchain," Mr Knight said.
Mr Knight said the local region was known to have good reserves of vanadium since the 1980s but there was no market for it at the time.
That has changed with the need to support EV batteries as well as steel alloys.
"Now the market is here and the uptake is highly successful," he said, pointing to several vanadium projects on the go in the Julia Creek and Richmond areas.
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Derek Barry
Editor of the North West Star Mount Isa since January 2016. Prior to that, an editor at several regional southern Queensland newspapers. Passionate about telling local stories. Comes with a strange accent to due an Irish accident of birth.
Editor of the North West Star Mount Isa since January 2016. Prior to that, an editor at several regional southern Queensland newspapers. Passionate about telling local stories. Comes with a strange accent to due an Irish accident of birth.
