RE:RE:Ucore & North Amer/Aust battery mineral allianceSure, here's the article:
Australia, US should form battery mineral alliance, says lithium chief
Jacob Greber
United States Correspondent
May 22, 2019 — 1.19pm
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Washington | Australia and the US may need to jettison free-market orthodoxy and develop a strategic alliance to guarantee supply of the raw materials essential to the new era of battery-based electrification.
James Calaway, chairman of Australian-listed lithium developer Ioneer, said there was an "unusual amount" of interest within the US and Australian governments over the vulnerabilities of critical supply chains for battery technology.
"I don't think we need to get into protectionism, but we can talk about what do we need to do to encourage domestic investment in value-added materials and development," Mr Calaway, who is based in Houston, Texas, said in an interview. "That shouldn't be off the table."
Tesla's Gigafactory in Sparks, Nevada. Ioneer is looking to develop a major lithium mine in the same state. Troy Harvey
Ioneer, which changed its name from Global Geoscience last year, is looking to develop a major lithium mine in southern Nevada that would deliver by next decade a five-fold surge in total US supply to producers, including Elon Musk's Gigafactory in the same state.
The move comes amid growing concern over the supply security of critical materials as the clash between China and the US intensifies.
China sent fresh shivers through US financial markets on Tuesday (Wednesday AEST) after president Xi Jinping visited a Chinese rare earth mining facility.
The move coincides with growing despair over the lack of progress on a trade deal and was seen as reinforcing China's status as the world's largest producer of materials used to make everything from nuclear reactors to electric motors, screens and smartphones.
The VanEck Vectors Rare Earth/Strategic Metals ETF surged almost 5 per cent.
Related to that, The Australian Financial Review reported this week that Lynas Corporation will have support from the US military as it looks to develop rare-earth processing in Texas as a way of encouraging alternatives to China's supply.
Lithium producers, alongside other critical metals providers, are increasingly calling for government intervention to help them compete against Chinese and other Asian producers, who often have state backing.
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Intervention could include the creation of the kind of tax credits that have been used to spur the renewables energy industry; faster permit-processing; lowering capital costs; R&D support and the provision of critical physical infrastructure, Mr Calaway said.
At the same time, there was now a concerted push in both the Trump administration and across the congressional aisles towards a dedicated national electric vehicle supply chain policy.
Mr Trump issued an executive order in late-2017 to secure America's critical materials supply, while bipartisan legislation sponsored by US senators Lisa Murkowski from Alaska and Joe Manchin from West Virginia seeks to help support producers by easing permits.
Speaking during a visit to Washington this month, Mr Calaway said he was struck by the prospects of a trans-Pacific approach to the issue.
"There's always been this very important relationship between Australia and the alliance, but I think there's growing recognition that the relationship on these strategic battery materials in the supply chains that are critical to these industries is of critical importance," he said.
Mr Calaway said countries such as Australia and the US could choose between developing deliberate strategies, or risk becoming "completely dependent on batteries, battery materials, and potentially ultimately the actual cars and other things themselves not being developed by us".
"You have to make an affirmative stand," Mr Calaway told the AFR. "And I think that the US and Australia are uniquely positioned to work together and to encourage production in those countries and go towards further value-add."
James Calaway: "I think that the US and Australia are uniquely positioned to work together and to encourage production in those countries and go towards further value-add." Not for Syndication
"It's an idea that is gathering currency, certainly in the United States, and I believe it's also getting currency in Australia."
The electrification of global transport, led by China's strategic push to reduce its reliance on fossil fuels, means demand for critical materials will surge five-, 10-, or 15-fold rapidly, he said.
"They have absolutely set their sights on this - and, by the way, not just for economic dominance but also because they recognise that as their society industrialises that the petroleum age isn't going to work for them," he said.
"This isn't about them trying to take advantage of us. They made a decision that it's in their interests, internally, to make this shift."
Mr Calaway said the difficulty for China was that it's not well endowed with critical battery-making materials such as lithium, whereas Australia is one of the world's greatest sources.
"We ought to decide how we want to position our alliance [with the US] to at least create a thoughtful response - not just accept what is," he said.
Demand for lithium alone will jump no less than 10 times over the next decade.
While the total value of lithium production is expected to double to $US10 billion ($14.5 billion) a year, Mr Calaway said the steady and secure supply of the material was "the absolute linchpin for hundreds of billions of dollars of investment that will be made, assuming it's there".
"So it's not an unreasonable issue for governments to say 'we want to make sure about that'."
Mr Calaway said Ioneer was planning to invest $US550 million on its Rhyolite Ridge project in Nevada, just over 350 kilometres from the Musk's Gigafactory.
Thanks to Ioneer's project, total US lithium production is expected to explode from 4000 to 5000 tonnes a year now to 20,000 to 22,000 tonnes by 2021, making it one of the most crucial projects for America's future battery production.
"It's an important project that an Australian public company is developing in near-term production of the critical material in the United States, close to the big US production centre," he said.
Mr Calaway said he supported the legislative push to encourage US development.
"We think that you're going to see discussion about not just improving the regulatory environment, but asking the question: "Are there prudent, thoughtful ways to create financial incentives that support those developments in Australia and the United States that are consistent with our way of life."