AMEC chief executive Warren Pearce calls for more mining in South West amid increasing critical mineral needs

The head of a national exploration industry group has warned the South West will miss out on downstream processing opportunities for critical minerals unless more mining is allowed to occur in the region. Association of Mining and Exploration Companies chief executive Warren Pearce told Innovative Industries of the Future Conference attendees there also needed to be more co-sharing of land between mining and agricultural uses in the State to open up deposits. He admitted mining in the South West was a contested space. “Unlike the Pilbara and the Goldfields, there is not a lot of unused land,” Mr Pearce said. “There’s a lot of intensive land use for a start, (and) there’s quite a substantial State forest that runs through the South West that is heavily fought for by environmental activists in their communities.” Mr Pearce said the State’s mining and agricultural industries had largely been separated until now, but there was a “significant range of critical minerals” underneath farming land that had been uncovered by prospecting. “However, if we are to get to it, we are going to need the support of the farming communities to actually go on that ground and explore in an area where’s it’s already being used for intensive use,” he said. Mr Pearce said the South West had a number of characteristics including good infrastructure and a skilled population to make it suitable for downstream processing similar to Albemarle’s lithium hydroxide plant at Kemerton. But he warned that potential would not come to fruition unless mining was allowed to occur in the region. “The reality is we’re not going to be sending minerals down from the Pilbara to be processed in Bunbury or Collie,” Mr Pearce said. “It’s going to have to be somewhere more local where it makes sense to transport locally, process here, and then export through Southern Ports.” GHD energy and resources executive leader Mike Nolan then led a panel discussion with Talison Lithium chief executive Rob Telford, International Graphite chair Phil Hearse, and Green Steel of WA co-founder Don Johnston. Mr Telford said his company’s Greenbushes mine was a “true global player” and was moving forward with expansion plans despite the recent falls in lithium prices. “It is the biggest producer of lithium concentrate in the world, it is the purest grade, it is the most sought-after spodumene and as a result, it is right on the left-hand side of cost,” he said. Mr Hearse said his company was planning to have downstream processing in Collie in 2025, the first of its type in the country, with battery anode production to be set up in the town at a later date. “I was looking at setting up in the UAE and I spent a lot of time travelling China, Australia and the UAE,” he said. “The UAE just got too hard, but at the same time, we were choosing options in Australia and Collie with its ‘Just Transition’ approach and the help we were offered to set up in Collie — it was just obvious when you get to it.” Mr Johnston’s company is also setting up in Collie, with hopes to melt scrap metal which otherwise largely gets sent overseas for processing. “(There’s a) really, really strong need for maybe 1200-1800 jobs, industrial jobs (in the town), so that’s the reason why we chose to locate in Collie,” he said. “There’s great skills. It fits really well.”