Consultation with key stakeholders is set to begin for New South Wales’s Critical Minerals and High-Tech Metals strategy, which aims to promote domestic manufacturing, investment and net zero opportunities and position the state as a major supplier and processor of critical minerals and high-tech metals.
The New South Wales Government will conduct a series of consultation meetings with key stakeholders, including mining companies, industry representatives, investors and workers, which will open until Friday 17 November 2023.
The State Government will also host a stakeholder roundtable on the sidelines of the International Mining and Resources Conference (IMARC), which is being hosted in Sydney for the second time in October 2023.
The critical minerals strategy is considered to be a crucial document that provides the framework for the critical minerals and high-tech metals mining industry and the renewed strategy will hopefully provide certainty and direction for the industry as it continues to grow and will include a sharper focus on domestic manufacturing, skills and training opportunities.
The consultation on the New South Wales Critical Minerals and High-Tech Metals Strategy will canvass new opportunities to:
- Create more local jobs by encouraging domestic processing and manufacturing of products with significant critical minerals inputs like solar panels
- Develop skills and training opportunities in the workforce to reinforce New South Wales’s natural competitive advantages and the unique mix of deposits found in the state
- Further encourage greenfield critical minerals exploration across the state, including through the release of geological survey data
- Examine the economics of the industry and the best ways to leverage the government’s purchasing power to ensure investment growth
- Create additional certainty for the industry and support New South Wales’s strong environmental, social and corporate governance position
- Attract investment for innovation, research and development in New South Wales
- Entrench the state’s role as a preferred supplier of critical minerals to global trading partners
New South Wales has an abundance of critical minerals and high-tech metals, including 17 of the 26 nationally identified critical minerals.
Resources like copper, silver and scandium are abundant throughout the state and are crucial components in the products that will ensure it realises its goal of net zero emissions by 2050.
Recognising the crucial role copper and silver play in electrification and decarbonisation, the state is hoping to focus on these commodities as part of the new strategy.
New South Wales Minister for Natural Resources, Courtney Houssos, said, “The new strategy will ensure the state is able to best realise the gains of the next mining boom.”
“New South Wales is uniquely positioned to support global supply of critical minerals with our diverse mix of critical mineral and high-tech metal deposits and capacity to promote domestic processing and manufacturing,” Ms Houssos said.
“We will establish a clear framework on how the government can support the exploration and mining of critical minerals and high-tech metals in the state.
“We will consider how boosted skills and training opportunities throughout the state can drive the industry. Critical minerals mining requires a skilled labour force and that means more, high-paying jobs for people in regional New South Wales.
“Our ability to leverage the state’s natural abundance of materials to create employment opportunities and economic growth will be the best measure of our success.”
SunDrive Solar CEO, Vince Allen, said “New South Wales has the potential to become a world-leading manufacturer of products that leverage critical minerals and high-tech metals.”
“Promoting a strong supply of critical minerals – like the copper at the core of SunDrive’s technology – is crucial to realising this ambition.”
Further information on the critical minerals consultation process will be made available on the Mining, Exploration and Geoscience launch website.
