Some mining industries will actually grow in importance as we move to renewables.
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That's good news for areas like North West Queensland which has a large mining presence in sectors like copper, zinc and rare earth elements, due to their use in renewable energy industries and electric vehicles.
Queensland Resources Council head of policy Andrew Barger told a recent industry breakfast here the rapid deployment of clean energy technologies implied a significant increase in demand for minerals.
The International Energy Agency have said carbon net zero by 2070 would mean a quadrupling of mineral requirements for clean energy technology by 2040, while net zero by 2050 requires six times more minerals than today.
Elements like copper, lithium and cobalt are in high demand in electric cars and in wind and solar power generation.
Mr Barger said copper in particular is seen as 'the new gold" and Goldman Sachs analysis in 2020 found copper was facing a supply crunch with bullish forecasts of price rises to 60pc by 2025.
Meanwhile the demand for zinc in batteries is growing due to their longer service life, non flammable electrolytes and more stable charging cycles.
The June 2021 Resources and Energy Quarterly said Redflow were offering a 10 KWh zinc-bromine flow battery which offers less sensitivity to ambient temperature than lithium-ion batteries.
The Rare Earth Elements are a group of 15 elements in the periodic table which are vital components in magnets for fighter jets and tanks, and they also play an important role electric vehicles, wind turbines and electronic gadgets.
Despite the name they are not particularly rare in the earth's crust. Caesium is the 25th most abundant crustal element. However, it is not common for them to occur in concentrations sufficient to support commercial mining operations.
As Mr Barger said the metallurgy of where the rare earths can occur is co-located with the already known metallurgy in the region.
"Suddenly you are talking about rather than train loads of commodities you'll have handfuls and suitcase-full, but these commodities selling at a higher price," he said.