Cobalt Demand Now Critical Just in case you have doubts about the demand for cobalt
Australia's new value-add plan
Addressing wide spread concern that China largely dominantes the global rare earth element (REE) and critical minerals supply chain, the Australian government has outlined a 10-year road map to accelerate the development of down-stream processing capability. Currently, Australia is a fast-growing REE and critical minerals (i.e. scandium & cobalt) supplier, but has only moderate processing infrastructure. As a result, Australia is mostly only capturing the upstream part of the value chain through shipping extracted minerals offshore. The new policy is designed to significantly extend the potential benefits by encouraging the manufacturing of value added products produced from the raw materials.
Critical minerals, including REE-scandium-cobalt, are required in a wide array of technologies ranging from military applications, electric vehicles and smart phones, underscoring the potential opportunity. For its part, the Australian government is set to roll-out a more incentivised environment and create a A$1.3bn fund to aid manufacturers in accelerating the commercialization of high demand products for global supply chains.
With this multi-pronged strategic approach, the Australian government is endeavouring to align with industry, potentially undertake direct investment and encourage businesses to collaborate on key projects to enhance the nation's value-add manufacturing capabilities for critical minerals.