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Renascor Resources (ASX:RNU) welcomes $1B Govt. deal

Mining
ASX:RNU      MCAP $254.1M
19 April 2021 14:10 (AEST)
Renascor Resources (ASX:RNU) - Managing Director, David Christensen

Source: Renascor Resources

Renascor Resources (RNU) has welcomed a recently announced bilateral agreement between the Commonwealth and South Australian Governments.

On Sunday, April 18, Prime Minister Scott Morrison revealed that the two Governments had signed a State Energy and Emissions Reduction Deal, worth approximately $1.08 billion. This amount consists of a $660 million contribution from the Commonwealth, and $422 million from the South Australian Government.

The bilateral Government agreement is designed to make power more available, whilst also reducing harmful emissions.

Primarily, the deal will seek to deliver energy that is both more affordable and more reliable to the people of South Australia, partly by unlocking further gas supplies. Under the deal, South Australia’s gas target would increase by an extra 50 petajoules a year by 2023. 

In addition to starting work on a new interconnector between South Australia and New South Wales, the deal will also provide funding for emissions reduction projects. Approximately $400 million of the agreement will go towards “investment priority areas”, such as carbon capture and storage, electric vehicles, hydrogen and other similar green projects in South Australia.

Despite over a third of the deal’s funding being pledged to emissions reduction projects, Australia’s Federal Government is still facing both international and internal criticism for its increase of gas usage amid worsening climate change. 

Last year, the Greens Party denounced the Government’s similar agreement with New South Wales, saying that the plan relied on “toxic methane gas” which would put Australia’s “weak climate targets on a certain path to failure”.

In sharp contrast, Renascor Resources is excited about the Government’s gas-fired plan.

The company’s Managing Director, David Christensen, said that the Commonwealth and South Australian Governments’ announcement bodes well for the company’s Siviour Battery Anode Material Project.

“The commitment of the Governments towards security of energy supply in South Australia, and the targeted investment in priority areas, provides Renascor additional confidence in our strategy of integrating our world-class Siviour graphite mine and concentrator with a downstream PSG manufacturing facility,” he said.

“Our ability to locate our operations entirely within South Australia will provide security of supply and lead to the creation of higher value manufacturing jobs and the capture of downstream value through the production of PSG for sale directly into the electric vehicle raw material supply chain,” he added.

As a battery anode material project, Siviour may benefit from the deal’s funding for emissions reduction initiatives, which include the electric vehicle, renewable energy and battery storage sectors. 

Renascor Resources is up five per cent, trading at ten cents per share at 11:23 am AEST.

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