Advancements in technology means mining growth

Discover where the next mining jobs are

The Australian mining industry is on the verge of a new mining boom based around so-called tech metals. So this is the perfect opportunity to find out where the next mining jobs are.

Tech metals may not at first glance have anything to do with mining jobs, nor does advances in battery storage or solar cell development. Yet, when you look closer, this is the perfect hint that a new wave of mining jobs could be on the horizon as we move into a new era of ‘tech metals’.

• lithium
• vanadium
• cobalt
• neodymium
• praseodymium

iMINCO Tip: look for mines in Australia producing those tech metals

Race is on to find new tech metal deposits

As the race heats up across Australia to discover rich and plentiful new deposits of rare earths (tech metals)� and other metals, industry itself is calling for the development of a value-adding component.

Australia’s two largest mineral commodities, iron ore and coal, are shipped offshore in bulk form where other countries, most notably China, value add by using them to manufacture many different products.

The ‘new economy’

The tech metals complex is made up of rare earths and other minerals and metals that are used in what is referred to as the ‘new economy’.

Tech metals are essential to making high technology component like mobile phones and solar cells.

They are also used to make batteries needed to store power (just take a look at Tesla technology – it’s all heading towards solar and battery storage) from renewable sources, and new types of lightweight engines to replace traditional combustion engines.

Can we learn from the last mining boom?

Australian Vanadium has a high-grade vanadium deposit in central Western Australia, and chief executive Vincent Algar insists there is every opportunity to create new value adding businesses.

He said the way the last mining boom petered out quickly should be a salutary lesson.

“I don’t think that anyone in the lithium space, or the vanadium space, or the cobalt space for that matter, should not do that given our experience in the last boom, where we shipped a lot of tonnes away overseas,” Mr Algar said.

Vanadium is a metal that has traditionally been used as a strengthening agent for steel in the form of rebar, but Mr Algar said its real value in the technological age was as a key component in redox batteries, also known as flow batteries.

“We’ve got this new developing, high-tech industry with growing demand for the materials that make up the tech, and I think we should be able to make the redox flow batteries in Australia because we do have a lot of technology,” he said.

“We’ve already successfully produced our first batch of vanadium electrolyte, needed for the batteries, at the University of Western Australia.”

The company has already entered into a venture with the world’s largest flow battery producer, German company Gildermeister.

17 rare earth elements

There are 17 rare earth elements on the periodic table, falling into the heavy rare earths or light rare earths depending on their atomic weight.

Until recently, China had a stranglehold on the industry and its pricing, because all rare earths were mined and exported from there.

The race is well and truly on to find more rare earth deposits, and Australia is a favoured hunting ground.

“They’re actually quite ubiquitous in the Earth’s crust,” Arafura Resources managing director Gavin Lockyer said.

“Why they’re associated with the term rare is the fact that it’s rare to find them in an economically recoverable quantity.”

Australia is the perfect place for processing tech metals

Arafura Resources has done that with its Nolans Bore project 135 kilometres north-west of Alice Springs in the Northern Territory.

56-million-tonne deposit

The find is considered significant with a 56-million-tonne deposit and an expected 40-year mine life.

It is full of neodymium and praseodymium, which is used to make magnets, the bulk of which are now sourced from China.

“We really think there’s much more value-add to be had by doing downstream processing, and Australia is the perfect place to do that.

“We’ve got an existing regulatory environment that covers things like water usage, environmental aspects, air pollutants, transport and disposal.

“There’s already a well-established regime and bureaucracy in place to regulate that, and we think it’s better to do that at the mine site where it all happens, rather than trying to do it offshore and making it somebody else’s problem.”

Politics and technology the key to new industries

It’s common knowledge there is an abundance of rare earth metals in Australia.

But George Bauk, of Northern Minerals, said the problem with growing the industry, and value adding, was a lack of political will.

“It’s not only business. Governments should be asking how do we maximise the value for Australia,” he said.

“How do we do what the Chinese did, set up an industry downstream to make sure we capture as much value as possible?”

The Northern Minerals rare earths project, Browns Range, is in the central northern Australia Tanami desert, and runs across WA and the NT.

“But we can compete with the Chinese if we look at the quality of the product that is here.

“Their grades are a 10th of what we have. Our grades are about 6,600 parts per million. Their grades are about six parts per million.

“We’ve got the product, now we need the collaboration and the political leadership and look beyond existing systems and look to the future.”

Jobs growth through developing a supply chain

Mr Bauk said a rare earth mine itself could employ 100 people, but if a supply chain could be developed for in-demand products, it could employ 1 million people.

“It has to be cost competitive, but it can be,” he said.

“It’s a journey that’s not going to happen tomorrow, but we need leadership and direction to extract more value,