[ferro-alloys.com]Newly appointed WA Governor Kim Beazley has dispensed with apolitical protocols to scold the Federal Government’s lack of appreciation of WA’s potential as a hub for the downstream processing of battery minerals such as lithium.

Speaking ahead of a meeting between government and industry yesterday to discuss WA’s energy metals opportunity, Mr Beazley lamented WA’s seeming inability to attract the attention of Canberra.

“We have very rarely managed to capture the Commonwealth’s imagination on any of this stuff, except as a grizzling entity,” he said.

“We’ve done many things for this country, we here in Western Australia.

“And frankly they do not appreciate what it is that we can do for this country.”

In May, the McGowan Government announced a task force chaired by Mines Minister Bill Johnston to investigate how WA could cash in on a “once-in-a-generation” lithium and battery minerals boom.

Yesterday, the task force met mining industry representatives and academics to discuss how the State could encourage value-adding downstream processing of battery minerals ahead of what is expected to be a global revolution in the take-up of electric vehicles and energy storage systems.

Mr Beazley said WA needed the “active engagement” of the Federal Government as well as a research and development tax regime that provided incentives for local innovation and helped deter the flight of industry and know-how overseas.

In May, the Federal Government announced plans for a $4 million cap on cash rebates for companies that were spending on R&D and had turnovers of less than $20 million.

The proposal has raised the ire of the technology start-up sector, including Northern Minerals managing director George Bauk, who has lobbied the Government to abandon the plan. Mr Bauk says the company’s $56 million rare earths pilot plant in the Kimberley would not have been built if the R&D cutbacks had been introduced a year earlier.

Lithium Australia boss Adrian Griffin added his concerns this week, saying efforts to establish WA as a so-called “Lithium Valley” for the battery industry were likely to be stymied by moves that limit R&D funding for bold industry initiatives.

“If Australia shows initiative by providing R&D incentives for industry, we can capture an extra 12 to 27 per cent of an estimated extra $25 billion to $57 billion of the value of the lithium chain globally,” he said.

Last week, Research Development Australia released a report which showed the energy metals sector had the potential to sustain more than 100,000 direct and indirect jobs in WA by 2025 and contribute more than $56 billion to the local economy.

• [Editor:王可]