The Critical Question
IN THE SPOTLIGHT with Peter Walker, Director at ORBIZ Q. Why are critical minerals important to Australia? To combat climate change, governments around the world are steering away from fossil fuels towards renewable sources. However, the creation of renewable energy infrastructure requires an immense amount of critical minerals to meet the exponential growth in demand. Australia is blessed with vast mineral riches, not least in critical minerals vital to our economic success. We’re the world’s leading producer of bauxite, alumina, rutile (titanium) and tantalum. We’re also the second-largest producer of uranium, lead, ilmenite, zircon (zirconium) and lithium, and the sixth-largest producer of the so-called rare-earth minerals. For all Australia’s riches, we’ve only explored around 20% of our landmass. We, therefore,…