Issues emerging as Australian companies tackle critical minerals challenge

The future supply of more than 30 commodities on Australia’s critical minerals list will be in focus at the fourth Critical Minerals & Energy Investment Conference in Perth, October 21-22.

In this interview, we discuss critical minerals with Patrick Mutz who leads Image Resources (ASX:IMA), a miner of zircon, ilmenite, rutile, as well as monazite, which contains rare earths.

Zircon is used in everything from ceramics to electronics, medical devices, aviation and nuclear industry metals, while titanium dioxide from rutile and ilmenite is used in pigment for paints.

I asked him about Australia’s progress towards securing supplies of critical minerals.

“We are making progress in Australia, the question is: Are we doing enough?,” Mr Mutz said.

“Only history will tell us whether we are actually doing enough.”

Mr Mutz said many of the better deposits with higher grades had been discovered and mined – or were being mined – and that meant companies had to look deeper and wider for deposits that generally offered lower grades.

This presented feasibility challenges, so Mr Mutz says commodity prices would have to rise to support the development of lower grade and deeper deposits. He also said permitting processes had become more complex, taking longer than in the past.

Constructing the Atlas Mineral Sands Mine

“In the case of our Atlas Mineral Sands Mine that we’re currently constructing, we lost about a full year in the permitting process, and you might think well maybe the project was really challenged… and I’d say, not so much, because others in the mining industry have also unfortunately been affected by these kinds of permitting delays,” Mr Mutz said.

“I think they come from a culmination of basically carryover from the COVID era, and we have a few less people and maybe the skills necessary to meet the big demand of these extra mining applications that are coming in, so it’s quite challenging.

“Now, having said that, we have navigated through the process and we are constructing.

“For Image the good news is we have three other projects in the pipeline that we do plan to develop over the next two to five years.”

Conference opportunities

I’m also joined in this interview by Ng Chin Chye, who’s from conference organiser Spire Events. He talks about countries emerging as leaders in the critical minerals space.

There are passes available for the conference, and opportunities for companies.