Without government regulation, natural resources pertinent to clean energy creation will instead be employed for weaponry manufacture, Johanna Evans writes.
OUR LAND abounds in nature’s gifts of beauty, rich and rare. Australia is blessed with an abundance of critical metals and minerals.
These natural resources are essential to both a clean energy future and harrowingly, the manufacture of the next generation of high-tech weapons needed for 21st-Century munitions and warfare technology. Whilst there is social licence for extraction for clean energy purposes, there is little to no social license for the extraction of our resources to contribute to the manufacture of weapons.
The community is faced with a moral dilemma and we need to hold the Government transparent and accountable. The majority of Australians may not be aware of the role our resources will play in the evermore unstable geopolitical events in the coming years.
We cannot afford to have another resources boom that plays out as coal seam gas extraction has, whereby there is very little benefit to average Australians with the resource being sold back to Australians at expensive export parity with no domestic reservation agreement in place.
Already, both Federal and NSW State Governments are throwing money at explorers and politicians attending events in the U.S. spruiking our resources. We are on track to give away these resources unless attention is brought to this issue.
Key questions need to be asked, such as how much public money is being used to entice exploration companies to the table and how much tax companies will pay once production is underway.
Will the Australian public see royalties from the boom? How will our water be protected?
If you search "critical minerals funding" on any browser you will see countless funding announcements. It was reported in The Sydney Morning Herald in October 2023 that Prime Minister Anthony Albanese would double the finance available to key exporters from $2 billion to $4 billion to secure up the supply chain with the U.S. for "renewable energy and high-tech devices". The U.S. are very keen to diversify their supply chain away from China.
The Honorable Kim Beazley AC is an adviser to Lockheed Martin Australia and the co-author of the report titled ‘AUKUS and critical minerals: Hedging Beijing’s pervasive, clever and coordinated statecraft’ for the Australian Strategic Policy Institute.
He has objectionably stated:
Australia has the essential minerals, which are more readily exploitable because they’re located in less densely populated or ecologically sensitive areas.
Some 3,300 items of U.S. military equipment depend on rare earths, which have few known or potential substitutes. They include almost every weapon being used by combatants in Ukraine as well as every fighter jet, navy vessel and nuclear weapon on Earth.
Nor is the commercial production of green energy and electric vehicles possible without them. Rare earths matter immensely. The 3,300 figure is probably outdated but, short of a more contemporary calculation, the magnitude might reasonably be expected to be of the same broad order.
We know that weapons tech has come leaps and bounds in the last decade. "Smart" weapons are now armed. Smart weapons, or smart munitions refer to weapons that leverage computerised guidance systems to navigate to their targets.
New South Wales is particularly abundant in at least a dozen highly sought-after high-tech metals.
Passion was shown for the industry by former Liberal Environment Minister Matt Kean and he worked hard to birth the industry. The Critical Minerals and High-Tech Metals Activation Fund was initiated and funding has begun.
Minister for Natural Resources Courtney Houssos has said:
“NSW has globally significant deposits of critical minerals and high-tech metals. Showcasing the state at IMARC is an opportunity to capitalise on their increasing global demand and drive investment to the state.”
The NSW Titles system "MinView" has seen an increase in Exploration Applications and Licences, with some 300+ companies – some big fish and many new fish – making their way through the system in the last 12 months.
One of the most alarming factors in this uptick is the new speedy Rapid Assessment Framework and the inability of the landowner to veto exploration and production.
On 10 May 2024, Enhanced NSW mineral potential data packages were released.
The data packages cover each basement province of NSW.
(Source: Central Lachlan Orogen Mineral Potential Data Package | geoscience.nsw.gov.au)
The enhancements allow industry stakeholders to better interpret and use the data.
The NSW map of exploration applications, approvals and production licences shows a very large area of the state that is open to extractives.
This means that a lot of country, our wild places, our farms, towns, homes and businesses will potentially become the target of newly created $2 exploration companies that are seeking a free or cheap-as-chips ride on the next boom.
What we are seeing here may well be our own version of "clever and coordinated" asset stripping for private profit that will fly under a greenwashed radar.
Johanna Evans is currently campaigning for the State of NSW to become CSG-free and for a statewide ban on unconventional gas. She is a volunteer for North West Protection Advocacy. You can follow Johanna on Twitter @jo_noCSG.
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