Western Australia Critical Minerals priority scheme

This project is part of the Co-operative Education for Enterprise Development (CEED) program

The Challenge

To develop a method for establishing the priorities of minerals research against the criticality of the mineral for Western Australia.

Proposed Solution

A review of published schemes which could be used to rate critical mineral importance to a future Western Australian economy.

The review should include:

a) analysis of the various approaches to compare the way the schemes have determined the importance of each mineral in the applicable jurisdiction.

b) using the various approaches, identify which minerals would be of priority for Western Australia and how this varies when using the different schemes.

c) a preferred approach for use in Western Australian to rate the importance of the different critical minerals to the Western Australian economy and justification for this.

d) recommendations on how the approach can be used to inform the future needs for research in exploration, processing and decarbonisation for each of the Western Australian critical minerals.

Proposed Benefit to WA

By reviewing the protocols of international geological agencies on classifying this criticality, some of the most relative assessments for Western Australia can be identified. For the research of the criticality for future technologies, six key assessments were suggested.

The assessments include the value of the export, sustainability, trade exposure, substitutability, and market position of the traded minerals. A total ranking for current and 2050 predicted positions showed some areas of priority are required. These include Nickel processing for higher valued products, Lithium sustainability, market structure, and future opportunities such as Vanadium, Platinum and Copper.