Madeleine King: Understanding what lies beneath our feet will pay dividends

Knowing what’s beneath our feet has never been more important. As the world moves to net zero emissions, we will need to mine more copper, lithium, cobalt and nickel to fuel the growing energy transition Recently I had the pleasure of going behind the scenes at Geoscience Australia, where the work is under way for the next generation of mining discoveries. For those of you who aren’t familiar with their work, Geoscience Australia is the Australian government agency that helps us understand what our continent is made of and where everything is. For more than 70 years, they have gathered geoscientific data about our nation, giving communities, governments and industry the information they need to make decisions that benefit all Australians. Here in WA, Geoscience Australia works alongside the Geological Survey of Western Australia to provide invaluable guidance to the industry. Both are among the most trusted and reliable institutions in the nation. GSWA has collected and collated geological information since 1888. WA is made of the right stuff to take advantage of this mining boom. We have some of the richest deposits of minerals in the world, especially critical minerals. We have made Australia the world’s greatest lithium supplier. The Greenbushes mine in WA’s South West is the world’s biggest known and highest-grade deposit of lithium, accounting for close to 30 per cent of the global market. And there are more discoveries to come. Backed by the work of Geoscience Australia, the Australian Government is investing in unlocking the opportunities of tomorrow. The road to net zero runs through the resources sector. In partnership with the West Australian Government, Geoscience Australia’s $225 million Exploring for the Future program recently completed the world’s largest airborne electromagnetic survey, sweeping the state for rare earth element-bearing clays and other minerals key to our clean energy future. A recent Geoscience Australia study uncovered the potential for large-scale, underground storage of hydrogen in salt caverns in the Canning Basin, in northern WA. A single large salt cavern could provide the same amount of energy storage as Snowy Hydro 2.0 with multiple caverns this size possible in the same area. Even Chalice Mining’s historic nickel-copper-platinum group element discovery at Julimar was underpinned by Geoscience Australia’s precompetitive research. This is the biggest discovery of its kind in more than 20 years, right in our own backyard, thanks to geoscience. This means jobs and prosperity for regional WA communities. Geoscience Australia’s Exploring for the Future program is directly supporting local WA businesses and communities with more than $50 million worth of investment in the region. In a recent impact assessment of the $2 million Julimar Mineral Potential Mapper project, independent economics advisory firm ACIL Allen estimated that for every dollar spent by government, the return to the Australian economy is between $1000 and $1500. That’s at least $2 billion flowing into the national economy. This money funds essential services such as roads and hospitals and education. These benefits are also being shared with our First Nations communities. Geoscience Australia is sharing and returning geoscience data and knowledge to groups such as the Wakamurru Aboriginal Council in the Manta Rirrtinya region and the Kiwirrkurra community in the Gibson Desert. But it’s not just what’s below the ground that will help place WA at the head of the pack during this historic transition. Geoscience Australia’s Positioning Australia program is helping to improve the accuracy of GPS to as little as 10cm — a 50-fold increase — through the new SouthPAN satellite-based positioning system. This will enable greater site safety, automation, and efficiencies in the resources sector, worth an estimated $1.58 billion over the next 30 years. This includes projected savings of $577 million in fuel and labour costs for mining haul trucks due to faster speeds enabled by more accurate collision avoidance systems, as well as an estimated $636 million in savings due to better material management, enabling production of an additional 64 million tonnes of iron ore over a 30-year period. WA has long been on the cutting edge of mining technology — just look at the autonomous train snaking through the Pilbara, the world’s biggest robot — and this new investment will ensure our state continues to live up to its revolutionary reputation and prosper in ways we cannot even imagine yet. Accurate site surveying, precise extraction of deposits, improved mining safety through vehicle and personnel tracking – the sky is the limit. We know the science of today drives the technology of tomorrow and there is no net zero without the Australian resources sector. The Government’s investment in geoscience is an important route to a renewable future — and West Australians will reap the benefits. Madeleine King is Minister for Resources.