PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Australia’s mineral endowment meant that it was well placed to take advantage of the energy revolution, the Office of the Chief Scientist’s Manager of Resource Economics David Thurtell told delegates at the International Mining and Resources conference, in Melbourne.

He pointed out that Australia is the world’s biggest producer of lithium, and had the second largest cobalt reserves in the world, as well as the largest nickel resource in the world, of which is it is the world’s sixth-largest miner, while also ranking as the world’s seventh-largest copper miner.

The country also had nickel sulphate and graphite deposits, Thurtell said.

Of the critical minerals niobium, rare earth elements, cobalt, antimony, magnesium and tungsten, Australia has been identified one of the top six resource holders of each commodity, meaning there is potential for additional production and investment.

“New and growing technologies, as well as changes in energy generation and storage will grow demand in a number of commodity markets, including critical mineral markets,” Thurtell said.

“Batteries, permanent magnets used in electric vehicles and wind turbines are a few of these markets that have significant growth potential. Some application markets are still small, and it is difficult to predict how quickly they will grow and how the technology will evolve.

“Consumption growth is expected to be strong, but it is hard to predict when. This will lead to market imbalances, potentially with undersupplies in markets. For some commodities, dominant market concentration in supply leads to further supply risks.

“As electric vehicles and stationary energy storage grow, increased battery manufacturing is going to expand demand for copper, nickel, lithium and cobalt. Potential growth is significant; for battery consumption alone demand could grow more than 20% a year for copper, nickel and lithium.”

Thurtell noted that Australia has significant reserves and mine capacity in these commodities.

“With a strong market outlook, particularly for nickel and cobalt, there are a number of development projects underway,” he said.

Electric vehicles currently account for around 3% of vehicle sales, but there are projections this could increase to almost 20% of the world market by 2025.

Furthermore, expanding renewable energy generation, particularly wind turbines, will also support growing copper demand, Thurtell said, noting that there was some 5 t of copper in a wind turbine, used to ground the electrical current and protect against lightening.