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Speaker 1: Now, the Northern Territory Government on Friday announced their next

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Speaker 1: steps when it comes to developing the Middle Arm Sustainable

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Speaker 1: Development Precinct. You would have heard us speaking on the

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Speaker 1: show during the week that was, and Deputy Chief Minister

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Speaker 1: Nicole Madison joined us to tell us that the government

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Speaker 1: says the precinct is being developed in an effort to

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Speaker 1: attract industries that reflect what the territory's future economy is

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Speaker 1: going to look like, including hydrogen, carbon capture, natural gas,

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Speaker 1: advanced manufacturing and minerals processing. Now to give interested companies

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Speaker 1: the certainty as they develop those projects at Middle Arm,

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Speaker 1: the Northern Territory Government issued not to deal commitments to

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Speaker 1: five proponents over specific parcels of land at the precinct.

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Speaker 1: One of those proponents is Taiwan, and Taiwan Executive Chair

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Speaker 1: Grant Wilson joins me on the line. Good morning to you, Grant.

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Speaker 2: Hey, Katie, how are you going?

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Speaker 1: Yeah, really good, Thanks so much for your time this morning. Now, Grant,

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Speaker 1: tell us what exactly you know, what does Taiwan do

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Speaker 1: for those out there listening who've got no idea?

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Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, sure, And I should say, Katie, I'm reliably

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Speaker 2: told that you're like the voice of Darwin, so very

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Speaker 2: happy to call in any time.

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Speaker 1: Thank you.

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Speaker 2: Thaiban stands for titanium and vanadium sort of mashed together.

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Speaker 2: So we're a critical minerals company with major projects up

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Speaker 2: around Windham called Spiwar and some interest in central Australia

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Speaker 2: around Tea Tree a side they're called Mount Peak. But yes,

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Speaker 2: we've been at Middle Arms since January. We had to

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Speaker 2: do an ideal from February. We're including the announcement on Friday,

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Speaker 2: which is a very important announcement, and we're looking to

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Speaker 2: process critical minerals at scale and specifically focused on vanadium.

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Speaker 2: Vanadiums are very forward facing critical mineral which can be

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Speaker 2: used to make large scale grid batteries, which can ultimately

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Speaker 2: store energy from renewable sources such as solar and winds

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Speaker 2: and can start to contribute to the long journey towards

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Speaker 2: net zero and the energy transition.

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Speaker 1: I had it sounds like pretty pivotal mineral and pretty

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Speaker 1: pivotal business that's going to be required as we do

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Speaker 1: transition more so to renewables.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, very much so. At the moment in critical minerals,

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Speaker 2: there's a lot of hyper around lithium and that's got

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Speaker 2: a use case in electric vehicles. So mobile batteries rares

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Speaker 2: as well have been making a lot of headway in

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Speaker 2: terms of its use in magnets, and that's relevant again

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Speaker 2: to electric vehicles, the wind turbines and things like that.

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Speaker 2: Vanadium is a little bit further down the track because

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Speaker 2: it's more focused on making large, as I said, grid

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Speaker 2: storage batteries. So you can think of, you know, large

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Speaker 2: green batteries which ultimately can store energy which can be

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Speaker 2: attached to the electricity grid. Now that's different than mobile

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Speaker 2: batteries electric vehicles, as I mentioned, and the use case

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Speaker 2: is really important in Australia because ultimately we do have

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Speaker 2: to start to transition industrial facilities, towns and even cities

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Speaker 2: away from coal and gas. So it's the multi decad journey.

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Speaker 2: But vanadium is actually the prefer technology invented here in

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Speaker 2: Australia as well the r SB. So it's an exciting

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Speaker 2: initiative and we're proud to be part of it.

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Speaker 1: So Grant, tell me, what does the announcement on Friday

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Speaker 1: and the Northern Territory government, you know, basically coming out

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Speaker 1: and saying that they are giving those interested companies like Taiwan,

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Speaker 1: that commitment that you know you've got the preferred site

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Speaker 1: there at Middle Arm.

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Speaker 2: Yeah. I sort of view it as the start of

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Speaker 2: a journey, Katie, because this is a multi year, multi

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Speaker 2: decade journey for the precinct and the government's working being

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Speaker 2: we're working very hard behind the scenes for a couple

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Speaker 2: of years on bringing together a governance framework and environmental framework,

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Speaker 2: and now they're comfortable and they're officially advanced to start

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Speaker 2: naming proponents. I expect there'll be others, you know, down

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Speaker 2: the track as well. I would say it's an incredibly

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Speaker 2: important initiative for the NT economy. The anti economy does

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Speaker 2: have sort of choke points, lack of poor infrastructure being

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Speaker 2: one of them. Opening up is up to multi industry

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Speaker 2: US important and really the purpose is to encourage industrial

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Speaker 2: companies such as ourselves to engage in common use infrastructure,

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Speaker 2: the purpose there being to defray capital operational costs across

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Speaker 2: the precinct, but also to ensure that impacts environmental impacts

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Speaker 2: in particular are minimize. And obviously that's going to be

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Speaker 2: a journey ahead for the Middle Arm Sustainable Development Precinct.

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Speaker 2: It's going to be making low news I'm sure, yeah,

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Speaker 2: Adie in and around, and I've spent a lot of

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Speaker 2: time the last six months on the ground with community

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Speaker 2: stakeholders making sure that our ground game for Taiwan is

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Speaker 2: certainly intact.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, I was going to ask, you know, the ease

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Speaker 1: always concerns, particularly when you talk about the development of

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Speaker 1: Middle Arm, those environmental impacts. So what mitigation work does

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Speaker 1: need to be done, for example, by the likes of Taiwan.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, I think what should look out for in the

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Speaker 2: next couple of months is a really extensive public reveal.

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Speaker 2: So this would be the Strategic environ Mental Assessment, and

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Speaker 2: you know it'll be publicly on display for I think

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Speaker 2: thirty to sixty days, and this will show the work

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Speaker 2: that the master planning team has been doing at DIPPLE.

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Speaker 2: It will afford community and all stakeholders an opportunity to

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Speaker 2: understand aspects of the precinct which have not yet been detailed.

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Speaker 2: So this will run the gamut from sort of the

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Speaker 2: corporate structure of the precinct to governance of the precinct

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Speaker 2: and most importantly to the environmental impact statement. So here

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Speaker 2: you're focused on trying to understand the baseline scenario for

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Speaker 2: all the proponents in terms of their cumulative impact on

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Speaker 2: things like air, water, harbor itself. And so I'd be

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Speaker 2: encouraging community broadly defined to reserve judgment at this stage,

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Speaker 2: because I think you're going to find a lot more

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Speaker 2: detail when that goes public. And that's the point at

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Speaker 2: which you know, we're really looking for community to engage,

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Speaker 2: and we'll be sitting back and watching that, carefully participating

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Speaker 2: that as well, and ultimately adapting our position at time

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Speaker 2: then to ensure that we retain our social license shop brand.

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Speaker 2: Grant tell me.

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Speaker 1: You know, because there is going to be people listening

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Speaker 1: this morning as well thinking to themselves what kind of

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Speaker 1: jobs could this create? And you know, what is it

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Speaker 1: going to mean for the local economy? From your perspective,

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Speaker 1: what will it mean?

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Speaker 2: Yeah, I think it's really important. And the way I

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Speaker 2: sort of view it is that the NT has been

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Speaker 2: left behind in many ways in the resources sector, you know,

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Speaker 2: for a long period of time. If you look at

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Speaker 2: the NT's economy, I sort of view it as functionally

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Speaker 2: broadcased through perfectly playing own source revenues less of billion dollars,

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Speaker 2: you're spending sort of seven eight billion dollars a year.

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Speaker 2: The gap is filled by camera, so it's really important

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Speaker 2: something like this comes along which does have the support

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Speaker 2: of camera for it to take shape. In terms of

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Speaker 2: jobs for time end, we're looking at probably fifteen hundred

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Speaker 2: jobs in the construction phase broadly, that's twenty twenty six,

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Speaker 2: twenty seven, twenty eight. And then as in contrast that

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Speaker 2: say impact we had to the boom bust, we're looking

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Speaker 2: at around a thousand long term jobs and we're doing

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Speaker 2: a lot of work already with institutions such as charles

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Speaker 2: Dale University to think hard about how it can train

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Speaker 2: people up from the grassroots level. So these are sorts

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Speaker 2: of the jobs of the future, and we're putting in

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Speaker 2: a lot of work on vocational educational pathways practically to

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Speaker 2: train that workforce up. So I agree. I heard Minison

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Speaker 2: Madison on the radio this morning talking about avoiding the

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Speaker 2: boom bus cycle. I fully agree with that, and we're

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Speaker 2: very much about creating a generational opportunity to territoriums. Now,

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Speaker 2: different proponents will have different profiles, but that's very much

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Speaker 2: what Taiband's about.

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Speaker 1: And it's really interesting what you said then. I think

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Speaker 1: you said you almost see the territory as being functioning

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Speaker 1: broke and look, sometimes it feels like that, and I

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Speaker 1: know that. You know, over the years we have really

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Speaker 1: seen the impacts of Boom and Bustard. I think what

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Speaker 1: it's done is it's made Territorians in a lot of

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Speaker 1: ways a little bit skeptical and a little bit cautious.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, I think that's fair, and it's a lot of criticism.

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Speaker 2: It's just love and Katie to see your listeners benefits.

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Speaker 2: I grew up in our springs, yeah, in the eighties, right,

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Speaker 2: So I'm here for the right reasons. I understand the territory.

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Speaker 2: I came back and took control of this company to

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Speaker 2: make a difference and to contribute to transformational change, which

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Speaker 2: I think is fundamentally necessary. Community level in terms of

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Speaker 2: engagementtween first nations, community and resources especially, I think that's

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Speaker 2: quite fractured, and I'm working hard on the ground with

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Speaker 2: traditional owners, leaders and development corporations that are relevant here

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Speaker 2: to make sure that we do everything right. And so

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Speaker 2: I view it as an opportunity to reset and to

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Speaker 2: create new pathways. I know that there will be aspects

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Speaker 2: of the precincts which are contentious at time. End will

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Speaker 2: be out and proud I'll be doing a lot of

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Speaker 2: media looking to engage grow suits level publicly as well,

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Speaker 2: and I want to emphasize Katie, I think our project

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Speaker 2: is going to be first in the queue on the

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Speaker 2: timeframes that are public at the moment, So a lot

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Speaker 2: of this. You know, we need at time end to

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Speaker 2: take a very forward leadership position for our company of course,

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Speaker 2: but also for the precinct were sort of are bringing

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Speaker 2: the sustainability in. You know, we're parted up with some

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Speaker 2: cable very forward facing mission looking to contribute to the

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Speaker 2: achievement of net zero emissions to the country of a

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Speaker 2: multi decade VIUEW. So we're going to be very public

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Speaker 2: about this and I think that will play a very

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Speaker 2: very constructive role as a good citizen at the precinc.

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Speaker 1: So Grant, tell me how far off are you do

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Speaker 1: you think from beginning work in the Northern Territory or

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Speaker 1: really getting things underway.

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Speaker 2: They Yeah, and this is where expectations management, which is

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Speaker 2: what you said before, is really relevant because major projects

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Speaker 2: have struggled significantly. You know, in the territory. It's no

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Speaker 2: secret these projects are really really hard to get up

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Speaker 2: and here we have coordination issues as well. So what

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Speaker 2: I would say is that we've got great support from

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Speaker 2: anti government from Canberra. There's a lot of sophisticated people

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Speaker 2: that have done a lot of work on the precinc.

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Speaker 2: I think there'll be commercial synergies at the precink for us.

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Speaker 2: We've got a couple of years of commissions work ahead

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Speaker 2: over at SPEWA, which is our primary resort. We're still

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Speaker 2: in a lab environment at PSIRO, a strategic partner of ours,

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Speaker 2: where we're working on the critical minerals process in technology,

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Speaker 2: which is very very sophisticated technology. We hope to be

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Speaker 2: in a position to build a pilot plant, like a

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Speaker 2: big demonstration plan to show off Taipan technology at East

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Speaker 2: as early as next year, and that'll be a great

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Speaker 2: point for killing engagement and then we'll be on the

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Speaker 2: pathway for the precinct looking to break ground throughout twenty

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Speaker 2: twenty six. But I do think that a lot of

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Speaker 2: the common news and infrastructure which the government has slated

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Speaker 2: can be brought into the public domain sooner than that

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Speaker 2: and community can really get their minds around how it

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Speaker 2: will shape the peninsula and what contribution it can make

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Speaker 2: to Darwin as well.

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Speaker 1: Well. Grant Wilson and Alice Springs. Boy, Hi, you're raised

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Speaker 1: in Alice. That is very interesting to know, wonderful to hear.

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Speaker 1: In fact, mate, I really appreciate your time this morning.

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Speaker 1: Thank you so very much for having a chat with us.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, that was a pleasure, Katy anytime. Thanks, thank you,