Tianqi, WesCEF weigh in on lithium support

Western Australia will lose its shine as a critical minerals jurisdiction if efforts aren’t made to keep up with global trends, according to the head of Tianqi Lithium Energy Australia.

TLEA chief executive Raj Surendran, who leads the Tianqi Lithium-IGO joint venture running one of the world’s largest hard rock lithium mines and the state’s first lithium hydroxide plant at Kwinana, told the AOG Energy conference this morning that the state’s mineral endowment would only get it so far.

“I think we are extremely special, but we risk losing that advantage if we don’t move quick enough to take advantage of,” he said.

“If you look at other jurisdictions to the north of us, and even beyond, a lot of these countries are very keen to get in – they have a portion of what we have in terms of mineral endowment but they’re moving a lot quicker.

“They’re providing the infrastructure and providing the incentives.

“Yes, Australia is special.

“But special only lasts for as long as you can hold onto it, by actually taking advantage of it.”

Mr Surendran spoke on a panel alongside Wesfarmers Chemicals, Energy and Fertilisers chief executive Ian Hansen.

WesCEF’s Covalent Lithium joint venture – a partnership with global lithium play SQM – last week opened the Mount Holland lithium mine, and is developing its own plant next to Tianqi at Kwinana.

Mr Hansen said he was confident the industry could ride the waves of volatility it currently faced, particularly the larger companies operating in what he described as a “nascent” industry.  

The WesCEF boss said he was supportive of royalty relief in the volatile critical minerals sector, as a support mechanism to facilitate investment through commodity ups and downs.

Royalty relief was recently implemented by the state government for the struggling nickel sector and has previously been used in support of the lithium industry.

Lithium producers are not currently subject to relief, despite a drop off of around 80 per cent in the price of hard rock spodumene over the course of 2023.

“Things like royalty relief I think are really important, not just to help some of the smaller companies without strong balance sheets get through the difficult times, but to provide some incentives for those larger companies to continue to invest capital in the sector,” he said.

“It gives them some confidence if there’s royalty relief at low pricing, so that they know they can get through during the difficult times.

“Those sorts of government initiatives are really important as the sector continues to grow.”

Mr Hansen highlighted concerns over environmental policy duplication at a state and federal level, and the state of play in the supply of domestic gas as key factors on the company’s radar.  

He said WesCEF was committed to further lithium exploration in Western Australia, and potentially had an eye on other parts of the world.

It is also following in the footsteps of Tianqi’s plant at Kwinana, constructing a lithium hydroxide plant of its own next door.

WesCEF has concerns over the state of the industrial precinct, where it has operated for more than 60 years.

“The challenge is, that Kwinana’s infrastructure really is at a breaking point,” Mr Hansen said.

“Be it the ports, the rail or the road, they’re all heavily congested.”

Mr Hansen said the state’s plans to build Westport at Kwinana and the studies carried out around it reflected an awareness of the issue, but that the area had more issues.

“It’s the bulk cargo jetties as well, and in particular roads and access to and from Kwinana,” he said.

“We might talk about some industries closing but that land will be rapidly used by alternative industries, and as more and more investment occurs in Kwinana the opportunity to develop that world class industrial area there needs government support.”

Department of Jobs, Tourism, Science and Innovation executive director David Alexander said work was ongoing around Kwinana, which he described currently as “a bit of a rabbit warren” where a lot of work is already underway.

“It is a very established area, and therefore some of the instructor is legacy infrastructure that probably needs a little bit of work with industry, to identify what exactly needs to be upgraded,” he said.