Hatch climate change director, Jan Kwak, explains how Australia is primed to be a leader in the global economy for the supply and processing of rare earth elements.
Australia needs to seize the opportunity now to create an enviable rare earths refinement economy.
Rare earth elements are critical to renewables, electrical components and defence systems, with global demand to rise 50-60 per cent by 2040.
While China dominates the world’s supply and processing capacity, Australia is expanding capacity and downstream investment, with multiple federally supported projects in train.
In Western Australia, Lynas Rare Earths is the largest rare earth producer outside China, while the Eneabba facility is on track to become Australia’s first operational domestic rare earth refinery in 2027.
Arafura Rare Earths Limited recently appointed Hatch as EPCM partner for its Nolans mining and processing project in the Northern Territory.
Australia has leveraged market conditions, recent government interventions and its proven history of mining rare earths to methodically re-position itself as a leader in rare earths circularity thinking and a global mining power.
Much of the world has been oscillating between decision-paralysis, fast-tracking builds without scalable technologies, and all under the backdrop of weakened trade conditions and tariffs. In Australia, however, there are terrific opportunities for supply chains to optimise; to become fully self-dependant circular economies of the future.
Australia is doing what it does best: it appears casual to the world while everyone else is talking about unsettled markets. In the background, it’s been taking confident, measured strides towards dramatically lifting its domestic processing capacity.
While the Federal Government has implemented a 10 per cent production tax credit totalling $7 billion over the decade for critical minerals processing, further reform is needed to unlock Australia’s full rare earths potential.
We need structural support to help build entirely new supply chains around circularity. That includes infrastructure, tax settings, land allocation and coordinated industrial zones similar to renewable energy zones. Those are the kinds of changes that turn individual projects into a national industry.
We also need to focus on factors that determine whether projects succeed or stall. These factors are lowering the overall cost of projects, improving speed to market – especially at approvals – and putting in place financial mechanisms that derisk investment and reduce the cost of capital.
Australia has some of the best success indicators; a rich and diverse availability of resources, landmass, renewables and a highly skilled workforce. Right now, Australian producers have been seriously thinking about rare earths refinement onshore – we’ve been watching it happen and we’ve been supporting the early adopters to invest, scale and innovate.
This new ecosystem prides itself on reputation, traceability and thinking differently for a more positive future state.
For its Nolans Project, Arafura Rare Earths is working with Hatch, which has provided feasibility studies on rare earths as well as engineering and implementation support.
The project will see the creation of a new rare earth mine and refinery, and this will significantly propel Australia’s capacity to produce critical minerals for high-tech applications including electric vehicles and wind turbines. They’re outstanding early adopters for rare earths refinement in Australia and are leading the way towards the circularity ecosystem the country needs.
Global interest in scalable technologies in rare earths mining has grown. Hatch has developed systems to drive extraction and improve sustainability – from new processes to improved digital controls.
The most profitable solutions apply circular economy principles — improving recovery rates and enabling higher-value processing.
A recent Hatch example is implementation of a first-of-a-kind technology called AI-Assisted Process Control for improved recovery. This technology is embedded directly into extraction plant and diagnoses the quantity and quality of some rare earth minerals as they’re extracted. This provides enormous financial benefit to businesses by improving recovery and thereby reducing waste.
For anyone wondering if now is the time to invest, the answer is to take hold. We’re on the seat of a once-in-a-lifetime moment. It’s up to us to grab it and build a scalable, adaptable rare earths economy. While market conditions are strong, we need coordinated action across policy, finance and industry.
Australia can build a strong legacy. If we get the cost structure right, shorten delivery timelines and support new supply chains, we can move from exporting raw materials to building a globally competitive processing economy. That’s where the real long-term value sits.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Jan Kwak is Brisbane-based director of climate change at global engineering firm, Hatch, and non-executive director EnviroMETS Queensland, which unearths ways to make mining land valuable to current and future custodians.