The Minns Labor Government will create a $250 million royalty deferral initiative for critical minerals projects and will examine the implementation of a rapid assessment framework for minerals mining projects.
The initiatives are the first actions of the NSW Government's new Critical Minerals and High-Tech Metals Strategy, which sets a vision for NSW to become a global leader in critical minerals.
Currently there are 12 critical minerals mining and processing projects in NSW that are ready for investment. They need around $7.6 billion in capital investment value and are expected to generate about 4,600 jobs during construction and 2,700 ongoing jobs.
High initial investment costs for critical minerals projects are a barrier for the industry. The royalty deferral scheme will assist new projects in the early stages of development, ease financial pressures, attract investment to NSW and enhance the economic viability of the sector.
Another immediate action from the strategy is a joint Department of Planning Housing and Infrastructure and NSW Resources assessment to deliver greater certainty to the sector around the planning process for critical minerals projects.
NSW has globally significant resource deposits and 21 of the 31 nationally declared critical minerals. The strategy identifies priority minerals and metals for NSW - including rare earths, scandium, cobalt, copper and silver - which have important uses in the electrification of the economy and the manufacturing of clean energy products like solar panels and batteries.
The strategy outlines the vital role of critical minerals in supporting broader government priorities, including in the clean energy transition and driving domestic manufacturing.
The International Energy Agency estimates that over the next 20 years, the world will need six times the amount of critical minerals currently mined to reach global net-zero carbon emissions. The energy transition will need double today's copper production, triple today's rare earth elements and cobalt production, and thirty times more nickel - all these minerals can be found in NSW.
Fully realising the opportunity of the state's critical minerals and high-tech metals deposits means moving further down the supply chain and beyond only extracting and exporting resources. Examples of this in the strategy include investigating opportunities to pilot common-user refineries and supporting investment in domestic manufacturing.
The new Critical Minerals and High-Tech Metals Strategy focuses on five key pillars:
- Encouraging exploration by minimising investment risk in greenfield exploration and promoting exploration in new areas,
- Incentivising production by creating an attractive investment environment and removing barriers to help projects move from exploration to production,
- Developing future-ready skills by providing training and education pathways to encourage careers in critical minerals mining,
- Establishing resilient supply chains by examining local processing facilities, driving research and development, and investigating critical minerals recycling, and
- Engaging local communities by ensuring responsible mining.
The royalty initiative will be an opt-in scheme where the first five years of royalties are deferred. It will apply to critical minerals projects which can start production between 1 July 2025 and 30 June 2030, predominantly mine commodities listed on the Commonwealth Government's Critical Minerals List and where the proponent has a market capitalisation under $5 billion.
The full Critical Minerals and High-Tech Metals Strategy, and a two-page summary of the strategy, can be viewed on the NSW Resources website https://www.nsw.gov.au/criticalminerals.
Quotes attributable to NSW Premier Chris Minns:
"We've got the metals and minerals the world needs, and NSW is open for business.
"We are sending a clear message to Aussie and global miners: invest in NSW.
"This is about backing regional jobs and manufacturing jobs, and taking advantage of the critical minerals boom.
"We want to make sure we fully realise the opportunities that critical minerals and high-tech metals have for NSW."
Quotes attributable to Minister for Planning and Public Spaces Paul Scully:
"To be a global leader in critical minerals, it is vital that the NSW planning system operates efficiently and provides certainty and transparency to the critical minerals sector and communities.
"The strategy identifies a number of improvements we can make to help enhance the system. These will provide greater guidance to the industry and improve collaboration between government agencies and departments in project assessment.
"We're also investigating further ways to improve decision-making to make sure we fully realise the opportunity before us."
Quotes attributable to Minister for Natural Resources Courtney Houssos:
"Our vision for NSW is to be a global leader in critical minerals and high-tech metals, generating economic prosperity through exploration, mining, processing and advanced manufacturing.
"NSW critical minerals projects typically have long lead times for development, and higher capital investment. The new royalty deferral scheme will assist mine proponents to attract investment and move faster to production.
"The new strategy sets out a clear vision for NSW to be a leader in critical minerals and high-tech metals, generating economic prosperity through responsible exploration, mining, processing, recycling and advanced manufacturing.
"We want NSW to be moving further down the supply chain. Extracting minerals is a critical first step, but we can generate strong economic returns and support more jobs by getting into processing and advanced manufacturing."
Quotes attributable to Minister for Industry and Trade Anoulack Chanthivong:
"The new Critical Minerals and High-Tech Metals Strategy forms a key part of the NSW Government's approach to Industry policy, which seeks to invest and promote home-grown products and services not only for NSW, but for export right around the world.
"This strategy provides a long-term vision and commitment to the critical minerals and high-tech metals mining industry so that businesses can feel confident to invest and grow in NSW, as we seize the investment opportunities of the renewable energy economy, both here and across the globe."
