Singapore Set to Shine
THE CONFERENCE CALLER: You know the world’s collective mining industries are starting to get serious about the inevitable transition to renewable energy generation and storage to offset the impact of climate change when all links of the supply chain gather in one place.
The Future Facing Commodities Conference is a ground-breaking gathering set to take place in the Asian economic stronghold of Singapore in the first week of April.
Future Facing Commodities, also known as critical minerals, are metals and non-metals that have emerged through the unique properties each contributes to modern day technologies.
They each hold particular economic functions due to the fact they are difficult to replicate, and therefore replace, when used in manufacturing renewable energy generators such as solar panels or wind turbines.
Not are they difficult to replicate or replace, some are very difficult to find leading to high degrees of supply risks such as geological scarcity, geopolitical issues, trade policy or other factors, which in turn, makes them extremely valuable.
It has been hard to avoid any chatter of electric vehicle and the predicted global rise they are to be responsible for regarding the increased demand in battery minerals.
This will be a subject of great discussion at the Future Facing Commodities Conference as companies meet to mull over how to meet this demand as the world transitions to renewable energy generation and storage to offset the impact of climate change.
The Future Facing Commodities Conference provides the perfect opportunity to bring together world leaders of Electric Vehicles and the critical minerals industry with global capital markets to meet at one major event in one major city.
An early presentation on Day One will be delivered by BHP Xplor vice president Dr Sonia Scarselli.
BHP Xplor is an initiative by Mining giant BHP, which has opened its doors to aspiring exploration companies, especially those in the hunt for copper, nickel and other critical minerals.
The major’s new BHP Xplor initiative is a simple way for the company to outsource grassroots exploration by financing juniors with a good tale to tell, but nobody to listen.
When launching the program, BHP described Xplor as being, “dedicated to accelerating innovative, early-stage mineral exploration start-ups to find the critical resources necessary to drive the energy transition”.
A smart move to get in early and being in the room should any of these minnows hit something of potential, thereby removing any possible bidding wars with any other super-miner that may be interested.
Also on Day One punters will hear from John Stover portfolio manager for Asia Pacific based investment and advisory firm Tribeca’s Asia Credit Strategy.
Stover’s presentation will look at the Supercyle investment opportunities arising in the Asia-Pacific region.
An appearance from Australian Government Minister Hon Madeleine King, MP Minister for Resources, Minister for Northern Australia will build on presentations at Critical Metals focused conferences by the previous Liberal Government.
No matter who oversees the nation’s capital, all persuasions of Australian governments are realising the importance Future Facing Commodities will play in our immediate future.
The World Bank is just one authority that anticipates demand for critical minerals in renewable and clean energy to increase, citing expectations of a rise of 500 per cent by 2050.
In its Resources and Energy Major Projects Report for December 2022, the Department of Industry, Science and Resources declared critical minerals projects would be perfectly placed to build momentum for Australia’s critical minerals sector.
At the time of releasing the report, Australia’s critical minerals major project pipeline comprised 81 projects with an estimated value of $30 to 42 billion.
Compare this to the same in 2021 when there were 71 projects worth an estimated $22 to 36 billion in the gun and it is obvious this sector is on the rise.
Western Australia has lead the charge to maintain its standing as the nation’s pre-eminent mining destination with over fifty per cent of all Australian critical minerals’ projects — in terms of both project numbers and investment value —located in the state.
That doesn’t mean the rest of the country has given up, on the contrary the hunger for Future Facing Commodities is driving exploration on projects based in most Australian states and territories, with New South Wales, the Northern Territory and Queensland accounting for most of the remaining investment dollars.
“Around a quarter of this year’s critical minerals projects are at the publicly announced stage, worth $6.5 to 11.6 billion,” the Department of Industry, Science and Resources said in its report.
“Projects at the feasibility stage account for more than half of all critical minerals’ projects — worth $16.3 to 22.9 billion.
“A total of 13 projects were at the committed stage ($6.7 billion), and three projects with a capital value of $800 million were completed during the year.”
Although the Future Facing Commodities are being exhumed from WA they are being put to more use on the eastern seaboard.
According to the Clean Energy Council’s Renewable Projects Quarterly Report – Q4 2022 New South Wales contributed the most financially committed generation projects in 2022, with five projects, Victoria came second with four new projects accounting with Queensland completing the podium in in third position.
All up, in 2022, 15 generation projects for a total of 3.57 gigawatts (GW) of installed capacity reached Financial Close, which was down on 2021’s total of 23 projects.
The Clean Energy Council noted that a pattern seems to be developing where there are fewer total projects, however, those that are coming on board are larger in size in terms of installed capacity.
“In 2022, 26 projects across Australia reached financial commitment. This was seven projects fewer than 2021 and the lowest annual tally of new projects reaching this stage since the Clean Energy Council began recording data in 2017.
This equates to 13.7 GW of installed capacity, as well as 10.1 GWh of storage,” The Clean Energy Council said.
“Over this same period, 189 generation and storage projects have been commissioned, contributing 13.9 GW of installed capacity, and 1.1 GWh of storage.”
Despite these figures, the hunger for investment in renewable energy and storage goes unsated with investment in new financially committed capacity projects hitting $4.29 billion in Q4 2022, a 10-fold increase to the previous quarter, and more than $4.1 billion compared to 12 months previous.
“The rolling 12-month quarterly average investment spiked to $1.56 billion for new capacity projects, and huge increase from the $531 million seen in Q3,” The Council added.
“Total investment on new financially committed capacity projects for 2022 reached $6.24 billion, an increase of $0.99 billion (+18.9 per cent) compared to 2021.”