The DoE Delivers, Australia goes to the Middle East and Governments Look at Space
Dear Members
I’m just back from a monster (for me) European trip — nearly three weeks on the road. Constructive, but exhausting.
It was topped and tailed by two conferences. As some readers will know, for many years now, I have been involved with the Zero Project, based out of Vienna. To start this trip, at our annual conference at the UN in February, we had record number of participants, over 1,300 from more than 100 countries, to discuss education and disabilities. I didn’t have to chair any sessions, but did host six televised fireside chats. Something I always enjoy — the tiny bit of extrovert in me!
Economist Impact – 9th annual Sustainability Week: Laurie Wayburn (Pacific Forest Trust), Tom Butcher (VanEck) and Anthony Gibbs (Imaginary Forces)
My trip was “tailed” with a screening of Beyond the Trees, the film on sustainable redwood forestry I helped make at VanEck. It was shown (preceded by a Q&A), as the afternoon closing plenary event of The Economist’s 9th annual Sustainability Week conference in London at the start of March. And, while many participants may have pushed off for their free drinks, we had a sizeable, but certainly engaged, audience.
On from conferences to minor metals. First, two items of news. In mid-March the US Department of Energy made a conditional commitment to loan some $2.26bn under the Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing (“ATVM”) Loan Program to finance the construction of lithium pro-cessing facilities in Nevada, targeting production of an initial 40,000t/yr of battery grade lithium carbonate. Enough for up to 800,000 electric cars a year.
The second news is of a deal in the offing between the UAE and Australia that could result in billions of dollars being in-vested in Australia’s critical minerals industries. Australia has also been discussing for some time a closer co-operation over critical minerals with the US, but its talks with the EU have been on ice since October last year. Australia had finally decided that the market access for its agricultural products offered by EU was not enough for access to its resources.
Last month, I looked specifically at some possible opportunities for the use of gallium in space. This month, it may, per-haps, be worth stepping back a little, taking a broader view and looking briefly, at what various countries are saying about critical raw materials and “space”*.
Starting with the EU, back in November last year, the Europe-an Parliament and the Council reached a provisional agreement on the Critical Raw Materials Act. One of the obligations of individual member states will be for each to identify the major companies on its territory that, using strategic raw materials, manufacture strategic technologies. In a space con-text, specific mention is made of both satellites and rocket launchers being strategic technologies. In addition, the European Commission’s Proposal for a Regulation concerning critical raw materials behind the act makes reference to the critical raw materials and their role in the space sector.
In the UK, the importance of the space manufacturing industry is addressed in the country’s Critical Minerals Strategy. In the Canadian Critical Materials Strategy (published in 2022), Canada recognizes the dependency of the green transformations of the aerospace sector (a federal priority) on access to critical minerals. Australia, in its Critical Mineral Strategy 2023-30, also mentions the space sector and the part played by critical minerals therein. And, I understand, in the Approach Paper it published last year, the African Development Bank mentions the need to focus more on geological surveys using, amongst other things, satellite imagery.
So, at least some countries recognise (to some extent) that space travel and/or exploration is very much dependent up-on critical minerals. How much they actually do about it, though, is a completely different matter.
To whet your appetite for further things space-related, over the coming views, I am going to look not only at space mining (a fascinating topic), but also the possible use of other minor metals (besides gallium) in ion drives for propulsion in space.
In the meantime, though, from Cleveland Heights, Ohio, I remain, as always
Yours
Tom Butcher
©2024 Tom Butcher
Tom Butcher is Director of ESG at Van Eck Associates Corporation (“VanEck”). The views and opinions expressed herein are the personal views of Tom Butcher are not presented by or associated with VanEck or its affiliated entities. Please note that VanEck may offer investments products that invest in the asset class(es) or securities mentioned herein. This is not an offer to buy or sell, or a recommendation to buy or sell any of the securities/financial instruments mentioned herein.
* See Viera de Almeida: Space Brief – Industrial strategies and the space sector: Critical Raw Materials, June 29, 2023, Lisbon, Portugal
