ZARA MARGOLIS, HOST: It's been a week since Australia and the United States announced the multi-billion-dollar Critical Minerals Partnership deal that's being sold as a major boost for Aussie jobs, industry, the green transition. But what does it mean for regional Queensland, from the mineral-rich northwest to the battery and export hubs all along the coast? Because so far only one Queensland project has been named under the deal, despite the state holding some of the world's most sought-after minerals. Federal Minister for Industry and Innovation Tim Ayres was part of those White House meetings last week and joins you this afternoon on Drive. Minister, thanks for making time.
SENATOR TIM AYRES, MINISTER FOR INDUSTRY AND INNOVATION AND MINISTER FOR SCIENCE: Zara, G'day. Good to talk to you again.
MARGOLIS: There's a lot of buzz around this deal being a game changer, but what does it actually mean for places like regional Queensland?
AYRES: Well, it's an $8.5 billion pipeline of the most prospective projects. So, this is just the start, really. We have inked a deal signed by Prime Minister Albanese and President Trump in the White House, as you say, last week. But alongside that deal between the two countries, there are a series of real projects that are reaching financial close that are in the queue. But that is just the tip of the iceberg of Australia's opportunity in critical minerals. And importantly for this government, critical minerals manufacturing possibility.
MARGOLIS: Queensland has been described as the backbone of Australia's critical minerals future. Yet at the moment, of those identified projects, only one in Queensland has been highlighted. That's the Esmeralda graphite project near Croydon. Why is that? Why only one for Queensland so far?
AYRES: Well, it's one of the background reasons why we were so keen to make sure that the Glencore Smelter facility continued to operate. Because, as you say, that northwest part of Queensland is, you know, full of opportunity in critical minerals terms.
The GrapheneX project is an exciting opportunity. It is the most immediate, closest to financial close, ready-to-go project. So, it's made its way onto the short list. You know, it is a very exciting opportunity to your northeast, I guess, if I've got my geography right; it'll be part of what I want to be the Silicon Valley of minerals production, critical minerals production in Australia in that part of Queensland where we've got enormous critical minerals reserves. I want to see that smelting capability, that refining capability, industrial capability preserved.
Not just to secure the future of copper and zinc in the region, but to make sure that we can lever off those opportunities, whether it's in a partnership with the United States or the European Union, or our other industrial partners around the world who are looking to Australia for Critical mineral security.
MARGOLIS: Federal Minister Tim Ayres. So, you said that graphite project near Croydon is the closest, I guess, to being ready to put in very layman's terms now?
AYRES: That's right
MARGOLIS: Here in the ABC, we've spoken to a number of different operators in the northwest, you know, where critical minerals are so abundant. Vanadium key among them. They've said that their project's still years off production. Will this deal speed up any of those timelines?
AYRES: Well, what it'll do is, you've seen an enormous amount of investor interest. So, the agreement between the two countries has provided a vehicle for these projects to get moving straight away. And we're going to create as much momentum here as we can. There will be projects that take several years to get to financial close. Of course, there will be. There is still work to do as we develop the critical minerals facility and make sure, really, what we're trying to do is capture an Australian opportunity.
There's been too much concentration of ownership and of the supply chain in critical minerals, which are vital for defence technologies, for communication technologies, the new artificial intelligence, and other sort of computational capacity, revolutions in quantum; all require critical minerals for their processes. It's not a good thing for the world to be dependent upon just one market. That's the Australian opportunity.
We'll keep working through these in a way that's real. You know, these projects are being funded because they are real and they are ready to go. That's how we'll proceed. And we're very keen to talk to prospective owners who own resources and have got plans to build, particularly processing and manufacturing facilities, because it's the value-add that's the most important thing for regional economies and for Queensland. That's what I want to see.
The Future Made in Australia is not - we’re not building new factories in the central business districts of our major cities, they're in our outer suburbs and they're in our industrial regions. And where you are is, as your local member keeps telling me, Australia's fourth largest industrial region, absolutely critical in industrial terms. And I want to make sure it's got a future in critical minerals.
MARGOLIS: Just finally, Minister Ayres, what's the message to regional Queenslanders who hear these billion-dollar announcements? But as you say, a lot of these projects are still many, potentially years away, so they've yet to see that investment in their communities. What do you say to them, to I guess--there could be a cynical person out there going, this is good, but it's not what Regional Queensland needs now?
AYRES: Well, Australians and Queenslanders are practical people. They've seen us move in lockstep with Queensland to secure the future of the Glencore Copper smelter facility. That's jobs right now in regional Queensland, in Mount Isa, in Townsville, in all of the surrounding facilities. So, we're backing in Queensland manufacturing now, but we've got a plan for the future. The Albanese government has got the biggest pro-manufacturing package of any government in Australian history.
All of this work, whether it's the work that we're committed to now or the investments for the future, require all of us to be working together, putting our shoulder behind the wheel, delivering for blue-collar jobs and engineering jobs and for regional Queensland. Rome wasn't built in a day, but we've made big progress this year, and we're going to keep working our way through these issues.
The GrapheneX opportunity is an exciting opportunity. I want to see it succeed, but I want to see a queue of project proponents ready to go in northwest Queensland to back the future of the region.
MARGOLIS: Minister Tim Ayres, thanks so much for your time this afternoon on Drive.
AYRES: Hey, Zara, good to talk to you.
MARGOLIS: That's Tim Ayres, Federal Minister for Industry and Innovation, speaking about that multi-billion-dollar deal between Australia and the United States, penned last week, saying what it means for Regional Queensland. There is that graphite project in Croydon, which is the closest to being achieved, but could be a few years away before some other things get off the ground.
ENDS.
