MINISTER MADELEINE KING: Hello everyone, it's great to be here this week at Diggers & Dealers, and it's really good to be with my friend and colleague, Western Australia's Minister for Mines and Petroleum, David Michael. With gold prices doing really well and Australian gold production at record highs, Diggers & Dealers here in Kal is really the place to be. Gold mining helped build this country, and indeed Kalgoorlie is really historically the linchpin of the federation. Were it not for all the Victorians that came here many, many years ago, including my great great grandfather who ended up walking from Albany to Kalgoorlie, you know, we might not have voted to be part of this great federation that is Australia. Today the gold and mining sectors employs more than 30,000 people at more than 100 mines across Australia while thousands more support the industry, and we see that in the support industries and services around Kalgoorlie and Coolgardie and other gold mining precincts around this State.

There's a lot of discussion here this week about other commodities, of course there's always traditional commodities of iron ore, LNG and coal, on the East Coast, but importantly Western Australia’s critical minerals and rare earths. I know it's going to be a great Diggers for everyone, it's my time here at Diggers, obviously I've been to Kalgoorlie a number of times, but it really is fantastic to have the opportunity to be here with you all.

I'm just going to make a couple of comments about a couple of national matters that have come up today. Firstly just to recognise the really important Cabinet decision made yesterday in relation to the Commonwealth's purchase of the Japan's Mogami-class frigates, that is a $55 billion investment in Australian shipbuilding, and this is amazing for Western Australia. This will see seven of those frigates built in Henderson in Western Australia just driving forward our defence shipbuilding industry as we go further in to our AUKUS arrangements.

And also on a related issue to critical minerals, welcome the announcement last night of Alcoa Australia partnering with and Sojitz and JOGMEC of Japan to partner in the Japan-Australia Gallium Association to look into an act of feasibility around producing gallium here in Australia from Australian bauxite. As you know, gallium is one of the critical minerals that has been banned from export from China, and the lack of it is now disrupting supply chains through the globe. So that is a really welcome development from Alcoa and Sojitz, and everyone associated with it. I know Minister Michael has a couple of things to say, so I'll hand over to you, David.

MINISTER DAVID MICHAEL: Thank you, Minister, and it's great to be with you again out in the goldfields, and can I say that it's great to be in Kalgoorlie for Diggers & Dealers. It's my second time, having been a relatively new Minister when I came last year, and I'm really looking forward to the day. We've already this morning been out to the core library to meet our great staff at the Department of Mining Petroleum and Exploration, and the geological survey. We've met some of our   the prospecting community of Kalgoorlie and the goldfields, and I'm looking forward this afternoon walking the floor and having a talk to a lot of these great projects as well as catching up with friends of the Geological Survey and the Perth Mint. So today, our announcement today is the opening of application for Round 32 of the highly successful Exploration Incentive Scheme which continues to support innovative exploration across WA. And it's been doing that since 2009, especially in under explored or the greenfield areas. It helps fast track discoveries and supports the long term future of our resource sector especially in the critical mineral task for the net zero transition. It's the foundation of WA's mining sector, it will drive new projects in the new mines of the future, creating jobs, supporting regional communities, and obviously will lead to significant revenue for the State.

It's vital for the economic diversification and meeting future demand for clean energy minerals, and exploration remains top priority for the Cook Government, that's why we added it to the Department's name. And we're heavily investing in the EIS to keep WA a world leader in mineral discovery and in resource development. It's already awarded $87 million to explorers to discover the mines of the future, and in this latest round, which opened I think yesterday, another $7 million is available to our exploration sector. And it extends to fostering responsible and sustainable mining practices and leveraging technology to make our operations safer and more efficient. It's not just about what we dig up, it's about what we can make, and we're actively pursuing opportunities for midstream processing, especially for our critical minerals to add more value here in WA. So I'm looking forward to the applications that come through and for the Department and the Committee that assesses those, because in the last couple of years as Minister, having the final list of applicants come through that are successful and having a look at the breadth of minerals that they're looking for and targeting as well as the areas through our entire State where the EIS can be helpful, is something that we're very proud of. So that's our announcement today. Do you want to maybe questions for me first?  

JOURNALIST: Minister Michael, thanks for taking questions. I've got a question about Lumsden Point. You were the Ports Minister at one stage.

MINISTER DAVID MICHAEL: Yes.

JOURNALIST: And now the Mines Minister. You know the idea that the port has an intent to build conveyors and ship loaders for the industry as part of [indistinct] does that concern you, and is it a vote of no confidence in the lithium [indistinct]?

MINISTER DAVID MICHAEL: No, not at all. Lumsden Point, I haven't been out there since probably early this year before as Ports Minister before the election. It's an amazing piece of infrastructure that still has some work to go, but it's absolutely taking shape. It's going to be amazing for that region for the resources industry, to bring stuff in, but also for especially the critical minerals industry to export. And that land site component which I think I saw some leases recently being approved, is going to be   there was great demand for those sorts of things. In terms of the material handling facility, that was always planned, but the funding to build Lumsden through the Federal and State Government funding, and quite a lot of funding from the Federal Government too I might add, detailed design for the material handling facility was part of that package. Our port authorities do a great job around our state, from Wyndham to Esperance. And they do a great job modelling with industry the trade task of the future, and Pilbara Port Authority are very good at that, and I know they'll keep working with industry to forecast trade in lithium and other critical minerals up there. But in the meantime, there are solutions to make sure we can facilitate current trade volumes.

JOURNALIST: Well, as it stands, to [indistinct] PLS being reinstated, they were under the understanding they'd get that infrastructure and they're not happy, and they were sort of suggesting they've been misled.

MINISTER DAVID MICHAEL: Okay.

JOURNALIST: So, you know, what about that; will you talk to them, or will the Government talk to them?

MINISTER DAVID MICHAEL: Look, I know the Pilbara Port Authority are very good at talking to their customers, and I'm sure they'll continue to liaise with PLS and MinRes about their trade task into the future, because the Lumsden Point has been built for this facility to go in at some point in time, including detailed design, as I understand it, either has been or will be completed for that particular project. But it will need Future Funding, so that will be a decision of government in the future when the trade task requires it.

JOURNALIST: Minister Michael, just on gold, I mean it's a hot topic at Diggers & Dealers.

MINISTER DAVID MICHAEL: Yeah.

JOURNALIST: The mining's presenting here like I think $7.5 billion worth of cash. You know, are you tempted   I know you ruled it out in February, but since then the price has gone even further. Are you tempted to up the royalty and get a, you know, sort of a fairer share, you could say, of the pie?

MINISTER DAVID MICHAEL: The gold industry obviously through jobs and through royalties and taxes are making an enormous contribution to our State. The Premier and I made a commitment before the election that we wouldn't increase royalties, and we won't.

JOURNALIST: Lynas this morning seems to have come around to the idea of a strategic reserve, not quite so [indistinct].

MINISTER DAVID MICHAEL: Any more for me?

JOURNALIST: I've got one more for you. Just on the miscellaneous licences    

MINISTER DAVID MICHAEL: Yes.

JOURNALIST:  that decision I think has been a little bit unpopular with a few local councils. I suppose why did you have to get involved in something that was playing out in the courts and potentially cuts off a revenue stream, you know, for the Government?

MINISTER DAVID MICHAEL: Look, there is obviously a long standing interpretation of the Local Government Act and it's interfaced with the Mining Acts regarding miscellaneous licences, since the early 80s when the current Mining Act was proclaimed. The status quo since then is miscellaneous licences were exempt. The State Administrative Tribunal found that recently, but obviously a Supreme Court justice had a different interpretation. What the Government is going to do, and Minister Beazley has announced, is to retain the status quo by amending the legislation.

JOURNALIST: Any changes to the WA Labor uranium ban given that's been a topic here at the conference?

MINISTER DAVID MICHAEL: Yeah, I've seen some of the media reporting. I think I got asked at the conference last year as well about the uranium ban. As you know, when we came in in 2017 we made a commitment in that election, and subsequent elections not to approve any new uranium mines, but we took the decision not to renege on the approvals that were granted in the dying days of the Barnett government, should they meet the environmental conditions. It's my understanding that of the four that were approved three have not met those conditions, but there's still one that we would not stand in the way of.But our commitment to WA people, and now three elections, is that we will not approve a new uranium mine.

JOURNALIST: [Indistinct] given a cool day situation [indistinct].

MINISTER DAVID MICHAEL: Well, I'm a former Local Government Minister, and I was City of Stirling Councillor for 12 years of my life, and I know that Local Governments do an amazing job, sometimes filling gaps in the communities that sometimes aren't their responsibility and that can be a criticism of Local Government sometimes, but I know as a Councillor, sometimes you're a community person, you actually want to fill a gap. I know that Local Governments do have funding challenges, big and small, but like any household in the State, you do a budget, and you can do what you can do through the resources you have from Federal and State and your local royalties taxes   sorry, local taxes and charges. And that's how I expect Local Governments to operate. There is grant funding available for many things that Local Governments obviously frequently get funding for. So it's a bit of an open ended question, but again, all Local Governments, I know there's always a wish to do more and every government in the State, Federal, State, local, we always want to do more, but you have to keep to your budget.

JOURNALIST: Minister, your language in your opening remarks as we're looking at midstream processing opportunities, is that a change from or  an acknowledgement that downstream processing is too expensive in Australia? We're looking at a number of livedin refineries even in Kwinana that are on the brink of even being shuttered  so    

MINISTER DAVID MICHAEL: We know that for every commodity that we have downstream opportunities there is a spectrum for different chemical processes and stuff, so we're looking to support midstreaming and downstreaming, depending on the commodity and depending on the proponent that put something forward.

JOURNALIST: Okay. I'll go now.

MINISTER MADELEINE KING: Yes, sure.

JOURNALIST: Lynas Rare Earths this morning, they seemed to be coming around to your idea of a strategic reserve, but a floor price, why should the taxpayer be on the hook for that?

MINISTER MADELEINE KING: Yeah. Just on the strategic reserve itself, and I should say if we go a little bit after 12, I'm happy to hang around for a bit. We have been working on it for some time, it was announced in the election period, so you know, I understand if people didn't get the kind of detail at that time that they might have otherwise wanted or expected. The idea, and what we are doing now is   it's a departmental taskforce to consult on how that strategic reserve does look, and we expect, and I've no doubt Lynas are participating in that currently as just about everyone else with an interest in this topic, and that's a really good thing. The floor price is but one means of how you establish a reserve, and we've always said this; there are many tools that go into that. We've talked about offtake agreements, a stockpile arrangement, and stockpiles can take many forms too. I think there's sometimes a vision of it being some gargantuan pile, and it's not necessarily the case, they can take many forms. But we're working through that detail in concert with the industry right now.

JOURNALIST: Minister King, you said that mechanisms to set that floor price are under active consideration. Can you shed some more light on the mechanisms that you're thinking about, and you know, would you go so far as taking an equity stake in a rare earths player as the Department of Defense has done in MP Materials?

MINISTER MADELEINE KING: Well, I would say that the Government special investment vehicles, a number of them have been enabled through changes of legislation to take equity stakes for a number of years, but it's a high bar to get over. So you certainly wouldn't rule it out, but what we   we're looking   actually, no, we're talking to people who have good ideas. The industry have clearly been thinking about this in depth for some time, and that's because of the challenges the critical minerals industry faces with an international market that's opaque, subject to manipulation, and therefore, some of these projects are, you know, they are really challenging to get off the ground. Nonetheless, the Government has to step up, we have to take on our responsibility to lead on critical minerals and rare earths globally, otherwise we will have a supply chain that is simply one way. And that's not good for us as Australia with a geology that is unique in the world, as people here know at Diggers & Dealers, that can be put to work in the national interests, you know, not only for jobs and the creation of communities and for modern manufacturing, but literally in our geostrategic and national interests. The Mountain Pass arrangement that was announced just last month is a really positive step from the US Department of Defense to get involved in rare earths processing, and I really welcome it. I would note that Mountain Pass is the US's only only rare earths mine. There’s one, there's only one, and they are tipping nearly half a billion dollars of government money into making sure they have a secure supply chain, and I might add, that's of light rare earths, there are no heavy rare earths at Mount Pass so far as I'm aware. So if you think about that and the investment the US Department of Defense are making, the US will still   and we have talked with them for a number of years, certainly since I've been Minister, and I know Ministers before me in other governments have as well, about how we work together. And not just the US, but on that rare earths extraction processing because of the market domination right now of one supplier. And this is   and I've said this before as you all know   this is about competition, about Australia, you know, competing in a field we haven't done so before but which we're imminently capable of.

JOURNALIST: There's a lot of talk about where that floor price should sit. I mean US have set a price well above market price, you know, are you willing to do that too, to incentivise production and investment?

MINISTER MADELEINE KING: Yeah, I know, terribly disappointing that I won't be setting a floor price today. And you know, this is just but one means. We've got to go through a process. So I wouldn't want anyone to get the wrong idea that that is the key to the reserve, but it is something that is well worth a look at, especially after the Mountain Pass transaction. So as to pricing itself, you know, if there is that kind of   and in the reserve more widely, whether there's a stockpile or an off take agreement, this is taxpayers' money and a significant amount of it. Equally there's a lot of support across the community for developing this industry, for Australia being a critical minerals and rare earths power in this world, as we should be. Our geology enables us to do this. But there has to be   if there is a downside where government and taxpayer money takes on the risk, there has to be the upside for the community as well. Part of that upside of course is in jobs and industry, development, reputation on the global stage, but also getting our money back. I mean that's really important. So, you know, we're going to look at all of these things because people will quite rightly comment why should the Australian taxpayer fund minerals processing.

JOURNALIST: You said back in May that you thought that the stockpile, whatever the mechanism was, would make money. Is that still your intention?

MINISTER MADELEINE KING: It sure is. I want   I just want the money that is lent out to miners and minerals processors, whether that be through the investment vehicles that we have   these are all repayable, all repayable for very good reasons, this taxpayers' money. If it's repayable, plus a little bit of cream, well, that's great too, because that goes to consolidated revenue which goes back into other projects. Having said that, this is a long term project, long term. We know that our competitors in this field in China are between 20 and 30 years ahead of us. That's a long time where the western world has kind of, you know, subbied out sort of resource extraction, a lot of chemical processing, a lot of mineral processing. So now we're going to start doing it. But we do have to look to the long term on a multigenerational investment in this industry. And as what I referred to as our traditional industry knows, you know, we always need a government   we always need a government hand in developing the resources of Western Australia. Whether it be with Sir Charles Court, Sir David Brand, going and lifting the embargo, or helping   Menzies had to do it but you know we had to   Western Australians had to go and convince the Federal Government to lift an embargo, we needed State agreements, the State's always very active in this. The Mount Channar mine, with Bob Hawke, out there with the Premier of China at the time, to really seal these important arrangements, John Howard, his active participation in getting the LNG industry going in Western Australia. So there are always steps along the way, and where a Federal Government works with the State Government to support an industry to get it off the ground, and this is no different, so it's a long term.

SPEAKER: Last question, guys.

JOURNALIST: How is the critical minerals reserve going to be concentrated, 'cause you can pick winners and losers with this thing. Lithium struggling, nickel's basically dead, the rare earth miners don't have the price they need to start new operations. Is it all going to go to rare earths 'cause that's all anyone's talking about, or like how did you actually decide what the concentration's going to be of commodities?

MINISTER MADELEINE KING: Yeah, look, that's a really difficult question, and there's no doubt it can't be everything, 'cause there's, what, 31 elements there, and there are different needs around the world. I see it, and we're still working, I do want to be clear that whilst we're talking about a couple of topics, the taskforce is still working on this. But it needs to be adaptable and flexible as strategic needs emerge. As I said it's in the long term, but that doesn't mean we can't work within a framework of what is needed most urgently right now to secure supply chains. I don't want anyone to be confused by me mentioning this in the same sentence as the reserve, but what Alcoa and Sojitz are agreeing on to set up that gallium production feasibility study is a really important step in part of that production process, where you've got an American company with its large Australian-held bauxite reserves here in Western Australia working with Japan, and Japan's, one of their investment facilities credit agencies, to work together to have a processing facility around a particular element that you can't get anymore from the primary provider of it being China. So that's a really big step, and that's what we want to see more of, working with partners. The strategic reserve is part of the many things the Federal Government is going to step up, as I said, to take responsibility to lead; the production tax credit, $17 billion worth of investment, that's across the 31 critical minerals, the Resourcing Australia's Prosperity, another over $3 billion. That's $20 billion straight away in the budget before last into the resources sector; the strategic reserve, over a billion dollars critical minerals facility, the NAIF being extended. These are all things where we are putting a serious amount of Federal effort, combined with the States, combined with industry, to build a critical minerals and rare earths processing capacity in this country.

SPEAKER: Thanks guys.

JOURNALIST: Can I get one on net zero?

SPEAKER: Last one.

JOURNALIST: One on net zero, just the key    

MINISTER MADELEINE KING: Barnaby's got [indistinct].

JOURNALIST:    keynote speakers here have said it's an unrealistic pipe dream, net zero by 2050. Do you have a response?

MINISTER MADELEINE KING: I have a bit of a response. I support net zero by 2050. I accept the science of climate change. We are in a really difficult state in the world and we need to do something about it. And speakers, and you know, I've sat in the Federal Parliament, I've watched some chaos over the last couple of weeks with the National Party seeking to walk away from net zero commitments. But you know what commitments I do see, and we talked about, and Minister Michael and I were at the opening of the Kathleen Valley Liontown underground lithium mine the other day, which is 80 per cent powered by renewables. So they're on to it, you know, they're investing, Liontown are investing in renewables, Bellevue Gold is I just ran into, this is what this place is all about, like running into people, they're doing a staggering effort in having renewable energy powering mining. We have the gas industry working on CCS to make sure we can, you know, extract CO2 and keep it and sequester it in a reservoir that used to hold gas will hold gas once more for millenia. So, you know, you can have speakers, you know, I don't mind people having their opinion, I don't share that opinion. My opinion is we should strive for net zero by 2050. I know it's the State Government's ambition, I'm sure it's the Federal Government's ambition, in the last term we legislated for it. And together with, you know, great industries like this, Australian and Western Australian mining industry, we're going to power forward toward it, actively and enthusiastically.

ENDS