Australia poised for new boom in mining

Australia is on the cusp of a new mining boom. The drivers this time are not iron and steel, which helped prop up today's modern cities, but electric vehicles and energy storage - two areas in which China is among the world's leaders.
 
Coal and iron ore are still important exports for Australia, but it is the new industries burgeoning around EV and energy storage that are powering the new resources boom for Australia and, in particular, the state of Western Australia.
 
Sparsely populated and mostly arid, Western Australia supplied much of the iron ore needed for China's industrial growth. But as China wound down its iron ore imports in recent years, and with the collapse of iron ore prices last year, many thought the mining boom was over.
 
Not so. True, some investors packed up and moved on, but others stayed. Many of those who stayed were Chinese who could see a much bigger prize with lithium-ion battery technology and the minerals associated with it. Industry insiders are expected to discuss related issues at mining meetings in Perth next month, as well as during the Future of Mining conference in Sydney on March 25 and 26.
 
Nickel, a key component in battery technology, has seen its price go up by 20 percent since the start of 2018. Old mines in Western Australia have been reopening, with some analysts saying the state's nickel could account for up to 40 percent of total nickel consumption globally within the next two decades.
 
The state, covering more than 2.6 million square kilometers, sits on some of the world's largest deposits of copper, high-purity nickel, cobalt and lithium, all of which are key to today's battery and storage technology.
 
Analysts say the new mining boom could be worth more than $50 billion annually to Western Australia within a few years.
 
Western Australia is not getting carried away with the new boom, as it did with iron ore. Yes, thousands of new jobs will be created via the development of new mines and processing facilities, but many of the jobs that were long associated with mining have gone, and digital technology has taken over.
 
The Association of Mining and Exploration Companies, a leading industry representative body for mineral exploration and mining companies in Australia, has warned that the country must act quickly and decisively to take advantage of its leading position in the global lithium resources market.
 
Western Australia is home to the world's highest-grade lithium mine, the Chinese-controlled Greenbushes mine in the southwest of the state. It is one of four lithium mines in the state.
 
Australia is one of the world's biggest producers of lithium, along with Chile and Argentina. Analysts say that as the world buys more electric vehicles, the lithium battery market could grow by as much as 19 percent annually. China, the world's largest car market, is set to have electric vehicles make up 20 percent of the sector by 2025.
 
Analysts also argue, however, that for a country like Australia, which sits on top of vast reserves of most of the metals that go into battery and storage technology, not a great deal is being done in developing the battery technology of the future.
 
While some optimists predict electric vehicle sales in Australia could be as high as 28 percent by 2030, there is no infrastructure such as plug-in stations to support it. Electric vehicle sales in Australia are below 2 percent of the car sales market.
 
China leads the world in EV and is expected to account for half of the global EV market in 2025 and 39 percent in 2030, according to Bloomberg Media Group. It also says China will play a dominant role in global lithium-ion battery manufacturing. China currently holds a 59 percent share of global production capacity and the figure is rising, according to industry figures.
 
The Australian mining sector does face one acute problem: finding people with the right skill sets to operate in the age of digital mines. There are already driverless trucks and trains, but the sector needs to change to meet the challenges of the digital age.