Presented by Anita Parbhakar-Fox and Paul Gow

We are on the cusp of a global technology and energy revolution as technology is increasingly integrated in our lives and we seek to transition towards a lower-carbon future. However, the manufacturing of new technologies (e.g., sensors, connectivity networks, electric vehicles, batteries, renewable energy plants) to support this transition requires a reliable source of critical metals including cobalt, lithium, tungsten, rare earth elements, indium, gallium and germanium.

We examine how critical metals inventories can potentially be increased through the mine life cycle from greenfield exploration to waste management, using Queensland-based examples.