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Weaning off critical Chinese supply

pportunities for downstream process-
Oing in Africa could play a major role in
diversifying the world’s downstream sup-
ply of critical minerals away from power-
houses such as China.
Leo Lithium Ltd managing director Si-
mon Hay said his company was explor-
ing ways to process its product from the
Goulamina lithium project within Mali, but
stressed it was not an easy task to achieve.
“The Malian Government has taken a
really prudent approach with downstream
lithium conversion,” Hay said during a pan-
el discussion on critical minerals at Africa
Down Under.
“We’re certainly getting all the encour-
agement on the upstream end, there’s
discussions happening around the next
stage, but we need to be viable and in pro-
duction for us to take that next step.
“There’s so much of it that hangs around
those projects. It’s not just the investment A discussion panel on critical minerals during Africa Down Under – moderated by Paydirt’s
you need, there’s reagents, you need ac- Michael Washbourne – heard from Simon Hay (Leo Lithium), Clare Pope (PwC), Andrew
cess to cheap power – hopefully, green Spinks (EcoGraf) and Tim Harrison (Ionic Rare Earths)
power – water, disposal sites for your
waste and by-products, access to technol- Pope said Africa, and Australia, were po- minerals security partnership that was put
ogy, access to a skilled workforce. There’s tential players to shake up China’s strong- down by the US about a week ago, looking
so much that goes into the next stage of hold. to relocate the supply chain into these re-
downstream conversion. We would cer- “What does that mean for countries in gions. That’s a real threat for Africa, that’s
tainly like to build that capacity somewhere Africa and Australia?” she asked. “We re- a real threat for WA. We really have to work
in Mali over the longer term and we’ll defi- ally have to think about what part can we together.”
nitely be in discussion with the Govern- play in that further downstream process- Ionic Rare Earths Ltd managing direc-
ment at the right time.” ing, where can we add value, what is it tor Tim Harrison said his company was
The US Geological Survey estimates sensible for us to do? There is a possibility fielding near-constant interest for product
there are 89mt of lithium resources world- of adding downstream processing in coun- from its Makuutu project in Uganda due to
wide, with China hosting just under 7% of try before it’s exported everywhere else. I global supply concerns of the rare earths
those materials and Australia acting as a think Australia and countries in Africa are which go into batteries, solar panels, EVs
major explorer and exporter. However, really aligned on that and it will help with and wind turbines.
China has moved quickly to capitalise on some of those geopolitical issues we’re “Tremendous interest, it increases each
processing the battery metals, controlling seeing emerging around supply chain and month,” he said. “Since the start of the
up to 40% of downstream lithium supply control of the processing of critical miner- year, we’ve had inquiries from Europe,
last year. als.” the US, UK, India and Japan all looking at
China also holds a strong hand over EcoGraf managing director Andrew securing supply of the magnet and heavy
the downstream processing of other bat- Spinks said his company opted to build its rare earths they need for their manufactur-
tery metals, including graphite (the world’s downstream processing infrastructure in ing into the future.”
leader last year with 820,000t processed), Perth because the West Australian State Harrison explained that while China
nickel (exporting $US6.15 million’s worth in Government embraced the opportunity. largely controls the global rare earths sup-
2020 as the world’s 17th largest exporter) EcoGraf has been working on its own pro- ply chain, the implications of security go
and rare earths (more than 80% of the prietary graphite processing technology for beyond renewable energies.
world’s supply processed last year). years. “China completely controls the supply
PwC co-lead ESG partner Clare Pope “We elected to locate the first facility chain with regards to both magnet rare
said countries around the world were be- here in WA because of the Government’s earths and heavy rare earths,” he said.
coming concerned about how much con- push for modern manufacturing, the value “These are extremely critical not just for
trol China had over downstream process- adding, and we bought into that,” Spinks automotive and renewable energy but also
ing of critical minerals. said. “We’re going through the approvals military and defence.
“When I think about the geopolitical process for the first stage demonstration “The desire is around the security of
shifts, we’ve obviously got a lot of concerns plant.” supply, being able to access the materi-
over it, for example, over 98% of solar pan- Spinks urged WA to quickly develop its als and getting that material into their own
els globally are made in one jurisdiction, own battery manufacturing capabilities manufacturing.”
and so now there’s a global concerted ef- before other jurisdictions beat them to the
fort at looking at changing that and getting punch. – Fraser Palamara
more competition into the supply chain,” “What we’re seeing now is an enormous
she said. pull from the US and Europe,” he said. “The

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