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Speaker 1: A re elected federal Labor government has promised to set

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Speaker 1: up a national reserve of critical minerals by offering voluntary

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Speaker 1: agreements to operations to buy some of their output to

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Speaker 1: create a national stockpile. We know the Northern Territory is

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Speaker 1: incredibly rich in critical minerals, with a number of projects

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Speaker 1: nearing a final investment decision. And joining me in the

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Speaker 1: studio to talk a little bit more about this is

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Speaker 1: the Minerals Council of the Northern Territory's executive director, Catherine Tillmouth.

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Speaker 2: Good morning to you, Good morning Katie.

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Speaker 1: Lovely to have you on the show. Now tell me

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Speaker 1: is a national reserve a good idea.

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Speaker 2: Look, we are yet to see all the details of

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Speaker 2: the strategic sorry the reserve ye announcement that was made

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Speaker 2: before the election. But what we do know is the

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Speaker 2: Northern Territory does have seventeen critical minerals. Don't ask me

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Speaker 2: to name them all of the Domamain.

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Speaker 1: It's not a science exam this morning.

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Speaker 2: Of the top of my head. But look, this could

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Speaker 2: be a really good opportunity for the Northern Territory. We

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Speaker 2: do have, as you said, a lot of projects that

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Speaker 2: are looking to get off the ground. What this scheme

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Speaker 2: looks at is securing the critical minerals for the security

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Speaker 2: of Australia, creating some stop piling for the Australia, creating

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Speaker 2: some off take agreements with these companies. You know, this

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Speaker 2: could be something that a huge player in the Northern

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Speaker 2: Territory like OURFURA could participate in and so securing that

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Speaker 2: off take, so having Australia be a customer rather than

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Speaker 2: looking at an overseas buyer. So that's potentially what they're

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Speaker 2: looking at. You know, the details haven't been worked out yet,

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Speaker 2: they haven't really figured out which of the critical minerals

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Speaker 2: could be a player. So you know, potentially this could

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Speaker 2: be a really really good thing for the Northern Territory.

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Speaker 2: But the things that also need to be considered, especially

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Speaker 2: in place like the Northern Territory, is in all order

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Speaker 2: for this to work, the framework for these projects, the

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Speaker 2: things that have been a hurdle for them getting off

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Speaker 2: the ground are still in place. So you know, energy

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Speaker 2: security electricity is still a big, a big ticket item

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Speaker 2: for these projects. You need to have affordable, reliable energy.

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Speaker 2: You need to be able to get through the approvals processes,

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Speaker 2: jump through those hoots and get things off the ground,

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Speaker 2: you know, you still need to be able to get

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Speaker 2: your project from start to finish feasibility and those things

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Speaker 2: haven't changed.

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Speaker 1: And they need to happen in a reasonable amount of time,

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Speaker 1: which we know over the years here in the Northern

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Speaker 1: Territory has not been the case, right Like some of

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Speaker 1: these approvals processes have been taking years.

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Speaker 2: Oh absolutely, And if you're an investor, you know you

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Speaker 2: still need to be able to attract an investor to

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Speaker 2: these projects. So if you're investor and you're looking at

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Speaker 2: a project, even if it is now you know, looking

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Speaker 2: at potentially Australia being a cut stomer yep and going wow,

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Speaker 2: critical minerals Austraia might be a customer for that. If

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Speaker 2: it's going to take a very long time to get

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Speaker 2: a Northern Territory project up, you might look at maybe

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Speaker 2: a critical minerals in Western Australia or Queensland, those sorts

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Speaker 2: of things. So you're still looking at that same sort

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Speaker 2: of framework. So that's while we're we're looking at the

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Speaker 2: Labor government being in power again, we just wanting to

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Speaker 2: make sure that there's no surprises now that they're in

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Speaker 2: government again that they haven't changed the goalpost that they're

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Speaker 2: not going to make things harder, that there's not going

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Speaker 2: to be another approvals hope to jump through, that they're

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Speaker 2: not going to change anything that they haven't announced prior

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Speaker 2: to government or prior to their spectacular win on the

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Speaker 2: weekend coming in, that's going to make things in their

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Speaker 2: Northern territory harder than it already kind of has.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, So when it comes to I mean, when you

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Speaker 1: look at those approvals processes and you look at what

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Speaker 1: some of what we're dealing with here in the Northern Territory,

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Speaker 1: do you think that comes more from the federal or

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Speaker 1: the local approvals processes in some ways or is it

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Speaker 1: sort of a combination of bot.

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Speaker 2: It's definitely a combination of both. You've got the EPBC,

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Speaker 2: which definitely covers both. Some of the things that were

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Speaker 2: talked about prior to the election were things like the

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Speaker 2: nature positive legislation and the potential for a national EPA.

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Speaker 2: So that's an overarching over the top. So that's for

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Speaker 2: things like the EPBC where you would have the federal

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Speaker 2: government have an overarching say over things, and you know

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Speaker 2: we have that lovely we are a territory. So Camber

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Speaker 2: can takeover.

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Speaker 1: Which could be really difficult for us. Then with some

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Speaker 1: of these projects, I mean, do you think the fact

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Speaker 1: that the Labour Party though has won on such a

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Speaker 1: huge majority and they don't look at like they're not

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Speaker 1: reliant in any way, shape or form on the Teals

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Speaker 1: or the Greens, do you think that that potentially helps

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Speaker 1: them in terms of just being able to get moving

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Speaker 1: and not feeling like they're being held to ransom. I

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Speaker 1: know that's playing politics a little bit gap. You might

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Speaker 1: not want to get into it.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, well, look I know you and I have once

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Speaker 2: upon a time in previous life, played in the played

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Speaker 2: in the other the space a little bit. You know,

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Speaker 2: it may come down to decisions of who's made, who

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Speaker 2: gets to be the minister, and the faction, the bits

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Speaker 2: and pieces that play into that.

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Speaker 1: Yes, look, we can only hope that we sort of

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Speaker 1: see some of these things. You know, nobody is saying

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Speaker 1: that you want approvals processes to be so easy that

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Speaker 1: there aren't environmental concerns looked at. Absolutely needs to put corners. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: no one's trying to cut corners, but you don't want

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Speaker 1: to make it so difficult that people are questioning whether

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Speaker 1: to do business in the Northern Way. Absolutely, So tell

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Speaker 1: me in terms of you know this looking at the

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Speaker 1: National Reserve, I mean, what did it effectively mean that

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Speaker 1: minds like that we're sort of underwriting minds by guaranteeing

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Speaker 1: demand or.

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Speaker 2: Pretty much it's it's it's a customer. You know, when

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Speaker 2: you're making those sort of business decisions, you need to

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Speaker 2: know that you've got somebody at the end that's going

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Speaker 2: to buy your product. So if you're part of that system,

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Speaker 2: I suppose, as I said, the details still need to

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Speaker 2: be worked out and not to be worked out by

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Speaker 2: the federal government, but it would sure up that you've

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Speaker 2: at the end of the day, you've got a customer

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Speaker 2: for your product, which is part of the difficulty of

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Speaker 2: making business decision that somebody's going to buy what you're making.

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Speaker 1: Yep. So Kat, in terms of now sort of moving

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Speaker 1: forward for the Northern Territory's minerals sector, I guess it's

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Speaker 1: a wait and see who ends up the minister and

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Speaker 1: then potential sitting down with them and you know, talking

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Speaker 1: them through the huge projects that we could have getting

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Speaker 1: underway in the NT and the benefits to the rest

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Speaker 1: of Australia.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, definitely, you know and I think that's going to

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Speaker 2: be I suppose one of the benefits of having Luke

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Speaker 2: Gosling being re elected. You know, he's very familiar with

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Speaker 2: all the projects that we have in the NTS, very

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Speaker 2: very very familiar with with I suppose everything Northern Territory

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Speaker 2: being in his role as the Member for Solomon for

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Speaker 2: such a long time, so his job will be definitely

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Speaker 2: to fly the flag for the NT in that caucus room,

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Speaker 2: and you know with whatever role he gets within that

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Speaker 2: room is to do that alongside business and alongside industry.

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Speaker 1: Well, we'll wait and see. Minerals Council of the Northern

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Speaker 1: Territory's executive director, Catherine Tilmouth, good to catch up with

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Speaker 1: you this morning. Thank you so much for your time.

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Speaker 2: Excellent. Thank you, Katie,