There is a push to recognise bauxite, alumina and aluminium as critical minerals in Australia, and be added to a list that currently includes lithium, cobalt, vanadium and graphite.
According to Geoscience Australia, critical minerals are considered as such because they are deemed both “essential for the functioning of our modern technologies, economies or national security” and that “there is a risk that its supply chains could be disrupted”.
Australian Aluminium Council’s (AAC) incoming president Mike Ferraro called on the Federal Government to recognise the three interconnected minerals for their national and international importance.
“Aluminium is, and will continue to be, one of the most widely used commodities in the global clean energy transition,” Ferraro said. “To capitalise on the nation’s abundance of these commodities and to position Australia as a supplier of choice, they need to be recognised as critical minerals.”
Bauxite is the primary ore of alumina (or aluminium oxide), which is then smelted to make aluminium.
The AAC said the critical minerals list currently has a “very narrow” definition of critical minerals that doesn’t include minerals produced at scale including bauxite, alumina, aluminium and other major commodities.
Further to the case is that other countries and jurisdictions such as Canada, the US and Europe identify bauxite and aluminium as critical, while aluminium is considered critical by the World Bank and the International Energy Agency.
“Australia should be aligned with its peers on critical minerals in order to ensure it is optimally placed to capture the increasing demand for minerals, like bauxite, alumina and aluminium, needed in the clean energy transition,” the AAC said in a press release.
For bauxite, alumina and aluminium to be added to Australia’s critical minerals list, it would seem that as the AAC has alluded to, Australia’s criteria regarding production volumes would need to be broadened. Manganese is the highest-producing mineral on the list, with 7.16 million tonnes (Mt) of manganese ore produced by Australia in 2020 according to GlobalData.
Australia is the largest bauxite-producing nation worldwide, with 103Mt of bauxite produced in 2021, according to the Resources and Energy Quarterly: December 2022.
The call for the inclusion of bauxite, alumina and aluminium to Australia’s critical minerals list coincides with the US pushing for copper to be added to its critical minerals list.
Bloomberg reported that Arizona senator Kyrsten Sinema recently sent a letter urging Interior Secretary Deb Haaland to “revisit and reconsider the designation of copper as a critical mineral”, with signers including other senators from West Virginia, Indiana, Georgia and Utah, each of which are hubs of copper production and manufacturing.
“This should be a no-brainer,” Sinema said in an interview. “We have major gaps in both our ability to mine and process these minerals to ensure our energy security for the future, and the administration knows how important copper is to our domestic and national security.”