Page 25 - pd279-Feb20-mag-web_Neat

A project agreement has been signed by Geoscience Australia and the United
States Geological Survey (USGS) paving the way for both nations to work more
closely on understanding each country’s geological resource potential for critical
minerals and developing a pathway to supply arrangements

port in Australia. Certainly, at state level we are seeing in- our main message out but this should have
“If we look around the world, we can creasing ambitions in terms of the policy really happened five years ago. There is a
expect to see markets comparable to Aus- approach they want to take as the world sense of urgency in these things now and
tralia having 30-50% of new vehicles be- transitions to EVs.” the reality is that Australia is often noted
ing electric by 2030. The question mark The most significant step for the Electric as a country with a competitive advantage
is still there in terms of what is a realistic Vehicle Council, according to Jafari, was because we are there at the first step;
projection for Australia; I think what is real- starting a national conversation on the we have the rocks in the ground to begin
istic for our ambitions is to at least be in line transition to EVs, with its desirable mem- with so it makes a lot of sense to central-
with other developed nations that are like bership base an indication of how Aus- ise operations where that side of things
us around the world,” Jafari said. tralia can have an influence on the market. already exist.”
“There is certainly an acknowledgment “I have certainly noted there is yet to be Australia is awake to the opportunities
that Australia is well and truly behind [in an international investor that we have spo- emanating from participation in the bat-
the uptake of EVs] and that is an issue ken to that doesn’t see a role for Australia tery-related technology sector and has
that needs to be addressed. We need to right down the value chain and they are in- acted to capitalise on an industry slated
see that translating into more significant terested in things like vehicle manufactur- to be worth trillions of dollars within the
actions and state governments taking on ing in Australia,” Jafari said. decade.
that responsibility. That is an area that “There is a lot more coordination by A Federal Government-backed Future
requires federal government action to be governments trying to capture that oppor- Battery Industries CRC has been set up
taken. There have been ongoing discus- tunity around the rest of the world, so that in Perth to help boost Australia’s pros-
sions with federal government for a few we are now working with the Federal Gov- pects of being more competitive and in-
years, but not any meaningful action yet. ernment on the EV industry strategy to get novative in meeting the needs of the EV

aUSTRaLIa’S PaYDIRT FeBRUaRY 2020 Page 25