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BATTERY MINERALS PREVIEW

EV sector all revved up

A common misconception about EVs is the
range capacity of the engines. Nowadays, a
range of 5-600km per charge is standard
nvestors continue to warm to the idea of ing and refining metals here in Australia scale-up investment in this sector. I think
IAustralia playing a big role in the battery and looking at opportunities right across this is really where we have already seen
minerals sector beyond the realms of just the battery value chain; building plants a number of Australian entrepreneurs
mineral extraction. and facilities domestically to things like and businesses really take on a world
Australia’s endowment and all-con- getting closer to the vehicle itself through leading role, particularly on the charging
suming responsible practices in mining componentry and vehicle manufactur- infrastructure side right across e-mobili-
is world leading, however, taking its re- ing. Things on the energy side like charg- ty,” Jafari said.
sources downstream has been prob- ing infrastructure, domain management “I think that has been really well recog-
lematic and the manufacturing sector software or hardware tools to support nised by investors across the world; that
remains lacklustre. consumer charging behaviour is of par- Australia is a pretty prime site for them to
Nevertheless, Electric Vehicle Council ticular interest, too.” come and find new opportunities.”
chief executive Behyad Jafari told Pay- Understanding of the EV sector is ma- The Electric Vehicle Council is Aus-
dirt there was mounting interest from in- turing around the world and Jafari had tralia’s national body for industry partici-
vestors to support the broader e-mobility noted the industry environment had shift- pants, which includes a broad range of
sector in Australia. ed in the past 12 months from research companies providing, powering and sup-
“There’s investor appetite to invest,” and business case building to invest- porting EVs.
Jafari said. “There’s interest in every- ment decisions in the EV chain. Tesla and BMW are just two of the
thing from mineral extraction to process- “There is significant appetite to really world leading car manufacturers in-

unior companies exploring and developing projects in to make investments rather than just trying to understand
Jthe battery minerals sector can start to feel enthusiastic the market,” Jafari said.
about attracting investment, according to Electric Vehicle The next challenge for Australia is demonstrating viable
Council chief executive Behyad Jafari. means of refining and processing materials essential for
Jafari said the council’s ongoing work was starting to battery-related technologies.
show the investment community – superannuation funds “At the very least, we need to see the pieces of the pie
and banks – were thoroughly engaged in opportunities right we can play a role in or pieces of the pie we can siphon
through the chain. ourselves and again that has been an area of very active
“I think we’ve certainly seen a massive shift from an en- interest,” Jafari said.
vironment where they said: ‘Come and talk to us about this “I think it is really up to us, I have certainly noted there
thing that we hear about”, to an actual appreciation and ef- is yet to be an international investor that we have spoken
fort out there for an increase in investment. What we have to that doesn’t see a role for Australia right down the value
seen is a trend turning from just interest to much more sig- chain and are interested in things like vehicle manufactur-
nificant, detailed investigation from people actually looking ing in Australia.”

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