Senate Economics Legislation Committee [Part 2], , 3:35:32 to 3:39:24
Comparison of Australian and Indonesian nickel processing competitiveness, focusing on energy costs and domestic industry challenges.
Topics: Manufacturing, China trade
Speakers: Senator Susan McDonald, Speaker 23, Unknown Speaker
>> Terrific list. >> Thank you. The article also specifically flagged Indonesia as well as India. >> Um do you talk to Indonesia um and and directly to India?
>> Um certainly um it was only last week that there was a um uh workshop um with Indonesia particularly around mine remediation. Um and um critical minerals is a as a mining jurisdiction um is an opportunity for cooperation there. Um but yes, discussions with Indonesia. Um there are obviously um aspects of um Indonesian um activity around borite and uh aluminina and nickel which have been um calls for our countries to have discussions in the past. Um but cooperative discussion certainly around mine remediation and environmental
nickel and aluminium and copper and all those things that they are now successfully processing that we no just staying with Indonesia they've simply they've significantly ramped up their production of nickel. In fact, so much that this government oversaw the collapse of our domestic nickel industry and in fact refused to include it on the critical minerals list under questioning in this committee from me and I note that it's now been included under the list after the Western Australian operations collapsed. But focusing on Indonesia's success in the nickel processing space, what are some of the key differences between our processing potential and Indonesia's?
Um so my notes Indonesia holds relatively small a relatively small share of global bork site reserves and may increasingly rely on imported bite as its refining capacity expands. Um this over time could affect its cost competitiveness and potentially create export opportunities for Australian producers. Um I don't have a detailed comparison with Indonesia with me. Um I apologize
>> on notice. >> Um and perhaps with reference to the chief economist, I don't know, he might have some data on this. it would be good to understand why it is that instead of processing those commodities in Australia uh we now hopefully will one day just export the ore but there must be some things that really right that makes them more competitive to Australia and I think it would be good to understand that I um I suspect Yeah, given that they have almost no borg site reserves, high transport um I suspect it is their massive use of coal that they're putting into their energy systems um that's making them more uh more cost effective than >> On notice, would you do some analysis on >> outside of this nickel collapse, can we look at what the other developments have occurred within the Australian critical mineral sector? What new projects have come into production since 2025?