May 7th, 2025 - The Mine Wire

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SPECIAL REPORT BY CORPORATE AFFAIRS AUSTRALIA: ANTHONY ALBANESE & THE LABOUR PARTY ARE RE-ELECTED

Corporate Affairs Australia is a Perth-based specialist resources and energy corporate affairs firm.

On May 3rd, the Australia’s centre-left Labor Party secured an historic landslide victory, securing at least 86 and perhaps up to 89 seats in the lower house out of a total 150, having previously held 77. The centre-right/conservative Liberal Party have secured just 40 seats, down from 53.

The results make Anthony Albanese the first Australian Prime Minister to be re-elected in more than 20 years, while Peter Dutton became the first Opposition leader in Australian history to lose his seat.

Their resounding victory will give Labor the confidence and clear mandate to pursue their agenda in the next term of government. This agenda will heavily focus on cost-of-living relief, a more independent foreign policy, and a stronger and more self-sufficient Australian economy as part of its Future Made in Australia policy.

Environment

Environmental policy played a smaller role in this election than in recent history, as voters turned away from post-materialist issues to cost of living, economic challenges and global uncertainty.

Labor shelved its ‘nature positive’ plans in February and committed to more and better consultation on environmental reform in its next term, indicating a more pro-industry approach. This does not appear to have harmed their vote in inner city electorates as they feared. Instead, Labor has seen significant positive swings in metropolitan electorates.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese addressed the creation of a federal Environmental Protection Agency in his first press conference, taking a more industry-supportive line, and committing to “…a federal EPA that supports industry but also supports sustainability.”

The Albanese Government will continue to face pressure on environmental reform from the Greens and environmentally focused independents. Greens leader Adam Bandt looks set to lose a close race for his lower house seat, but the Greens will continue to hold the balance of power in Australia’s upper house (Senate).

Resources

Labor built on its Future Made in Australia agenda that delivered the Critical Minerals Production Tax Incentive (CMPTI) to announce a Critical Minerals Strategic Reserve.

With $1.2 billion funding, the Reserve will support nominated critical mineral production through national offtake agreements and selective stockpiling arrangements.

The policy will apply only to a subset of the 31 critical minerals, with the final design to be subject to consultation early in this term of government. For critical minerals projects, the Reserve provides a further mechanism that could potentially support development, adding potential offtake agreements to debt finance options, and the tax benefits offered by the CMPTI.

While the Reserve will form part of the discussions with the United States, industry should expect that it will also feature strongly in engagement with Japan and the Republic of Korea, where is acknowledged that government support can be particularly beneficial.

Energy

The Liberal Party had attempted to put energy policy at the centre of the campaign. However, its attempt to introduce nuclear power as a mainstream issue surprised political observers and has been cited as contributing to its disastrous election results. While the merits of nuclear power may continue to be discussed by those with a policy interest, it is politically dead for the time being, and the government will move on its own agenda.

The government’s focus is on gas-firmed renewables, which was laid out in their first-term Future Gas Strategy and is critical to delivering the Future Made in Australia policy.

Next steps

With a resounding victory, the Prime Minister can begin allocating portfolios, and has already committed to retaining Jim Chalmers in Treasury, Richard Marles in Defence, Penny Wong in Foreign Affairs and Don Farrell as Trade Minister. We will be closely watching the portfolios of Environment (which will likely be allocated to a different Minister), Resources (which we hope remains with incumbent Madeleine King) and Energy (which would benefit from new leadership).

The Opposition must first elect a new leader, with Angus Taylor, Sussan Ley and Dan Tehan among the top contenders.

Thank you to Corporate Affairs Australia for the expert analysis above. If you are looking for support in Australia, we highly recommend reaching out to these guys - Corporate Affairs Australia.

KEEPING AN EYE ON GOVERNMENT DECISIONS

Here are some of the notable government policy moves this week:

• 🇺🇸 The Office of Management and Budget sent President Trump’s topline discretionary Budget request for fiscal year 2026 to the U.S. Congress. The White House is touting a $163bn decrease in non-defense discretionary spending while increasing budgets in other areas. Achieve American Energy Dominance is one of the pillars and the press release says, “The Budget cancels over $15 billion in Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) Green New Scam funds… The Budget reorients Department of Energy funding toward research and development of technologies that could produce an abundance of domestic fossil energy and critical minerals, innovative concepts for nuclear reactors and advanced nuclear fuels, and technologies that promote firm baseload power. The Budget also cancels an additional $5.7 billion in IIJA funding provided to the Department of Transportation for failed electric vehicle charger grant programs.” (The White House)

• 🇺🇸 The Trump Administration added 10 more mining projects to the fast-track permitting list this past week. These include projects by NewRange Copper Nickel LLC, Laramide Resources, Ltd., Energy Fuels, Inc., Hecla Mining Company and Sibanye Stillwater among others. Full disclosure, we are holding Energy Fuels in our own portfolio, so we were pleased to see them on the list. (Permitting Council)

• 🇺🇸 The board of the U.S. Export-Import Bank unanimously voted last Thursday to reverse a years-long restriction on lending to coal projects overseas, reflecting President Donald Trump's agenda that calls for more domestic coal mining and exports of U.S. coal. (Reuters)

• 🇨🇦 The British Columbia government was promoting its infrastructure projects act last week which aims to speed up approvals for key public infrastructure projects as well as provincially significant projects delivered by the private sector that are needed to drive economic growth. According to the release this includes, “allowing an expedited environmental assessment process so designated projects can be reviewed more quickly without compromising B.C.’s high environmental standards.” Further, the release states that “To be designated as provincially significant, a project would need to create significant economic, social or environmental benefits for people in B.C. and significantly contribute to provincial priorities such as food security, critical mineral supply, replacement of U.S. imports and disaster recovery. Criteria for the designation of projects of provincial significance will be released in the coming weeks.” Definitely worth watching if you have a project in BC - certainly getting your project designated would be a positive. (Government of British Columbia)

• 🇵🇪 Sadly, 13 miners lost their lives in Peru's northern district of Pataz after being kidnapped last month by illegal miners. The 13 gold miners were subcontracted by miner Poderosa. In response, Peru’s President has suspended mining in the region for 30 days and has promised to send in the armed forces to take control of the area where Poderosa operates. (Reuters)

• 🇺🇳 Leticia Reis de Carvalho, Secretary-General of the International Seabed Authority, authored a release last week in response to the United States Executive Order titled, “Unleashing America’s Offshore Critical Minerals & Resources.” She defends the work of the ISA and the importance of countries working within the UNCLOS framework. We were most interested in this paragraph, “For starters, parties of UNCLOS have a duty not to recognize any acquisition or exercise of rights over minerals recovered from the Area by any State or by any natural or juridical person that are not conducted in accordance with Part XI of UNCLOS. It is the collective responsibility of the international community to uphold and enforce these obligations.” We are getting flashbacks of the Turbot War but maybe that’s because we are Canadian. We hope an agreeable path forward can be negotiated by all parties. (International Seabed Authority)

• 🇸🇦 Saudi Arabia has had enough of OPEC+ countries producing more than their agreed upon quotas. These quotas are designed to maintain higher levels of pricing in the global market but countries like Iraq and Kazakhstan have been over-produced to line their own pockets. Well, the Kingdom now looks to punish them and others by ramping up production and keeping prices low. It is expected that an additional 2.2m to 2.6m barrels per day will be produced by November. Definitely a positive for consumers and industry - not so great if oil sands equities are overweight in your portfolio, like us. (Reuters)

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MINING MATTERS FROM AROUND THE WORLD 🌎

• 🇿🇦 🇦🇺 South Africa’s Gold Fields (JSE: GFI) will buy Australia’s Gold Road Resources (ASX: GOR) for A$3.7 billion (US$2.4 billion). Gold Road Chairman, Tim Netscher said: “The Board has been focused at all times on ensuring that we deliver value and act in the best interests of our shareholders. The Gold Road Directors consider that the value offered by the all-cash Scheme Consideration delivers compelling value for Gold Road shareholders compared to what may otherwise be available if Gold Road continued to operate as a standalone entity…” The stock is up roughly 9% on the news but up an incredible 85% the past 6 months. We like those returns. (ABC)

• 🇺🇸 Albemarle’s CEO Kent Masters told Reuters that "The math doesn't work today” in relation to their U.S. lithium refinery project. Last year, the company paused it’s plans to build a $1.3bn lithium processing plant in South Carolina. Masters said, "We've been wanting to build this Western supply chain. The economics just aren't there to build that plant out in South Carolina." With Chinese competitors overproducing and keeping prices depressed, it is unlikely private companies are going to be able to go it alone. Expect government support, targeted tariffs or price guarantees if the U.S. wants to build out these domestic supply chains. (Reuters)

• 🇨🇦 Northern Graphite (CVE: NGC) has announced that it is likely to place its Lac des Iles mine under care and maintenance by the end of 2024 if it can’t find C$10m in financing to expand the mines life by another 8 years. Currently, its mine in northern Quebec is the only graphite producing mine in North America. With China controlling about 70% of the globe’s graphite production, this one seems like a no-brainer for some government support. (Mining Technology)

• 🇦🇺 Rio Tinto’s CEO Jakob Stausholm said that mining giant will take a "serious look” at the critical minerals it can supply as "The world has changed." Recognizing the growing concern around China, export restrictions and a global trade war, the miner is willing to look at extracting these rare earths from current operations but needs to ensure there is a market before investing. (Morningstar)

• 🇺🇸 Congratulations to Alta Resources Technologies, a pioneer in using advanced biochemistry to transform mineral separation, which expanded its Series Seed funding to $10m with the close of an additional $4.4m investment. The Seed 2 investment was co-led by DCVC and Voyager Ventures with participation from Orion Industrial Ventures and In-Q-Tel, the not-for-profit strategic investor for the U.S. national security community and America’s allies. Nice! (Businesswire)

• 🇨🇦 We also tip our hats to Exterra Carbon Solutions, a Canadian cleantech innovator transforming legacy mining waste into high-value, sustainable materials, which announced the closing of a C$20m Series A financing round. (BetaKit)

• 🇸🇦 🇦🇺 Saudi Arabia’s Ma’aden has signed a deal with Australia’s Fleet Space Technologies & Tahreez JV to explore over 12,000kms in the Arabian Shield. The four-year agreement will enable high-resolution, real-time 3D subsurface imaging up to 7km in depth to support Ma’aden’s growth strategy in support of Vision 2030. Must have been a very exciting week down in Adelaide! (Fleet Space Technologies)

MINING BITS

• 🇺🇸 Have a zinc operation in North America? Then you should read this piece by the Center for Strategic & International Studies titled, “Rebuilding U.S. Zinc Capacity in an Era of Global Competition.” Lots of graphs, comparisons and project information. (CSIS)

• 🇨🇿 A pair of hikers in the Czech Republic found two aluminum cans hidden in a man-made stone wall. Inside, they found 598 gold coins dated between 1808 and 1915, worth about US$341,000. The hikers handed the loot over to the Museum of East Bohemia. (CBS News)

• 🇺🇸 A great piece by mining engineering students at the University of Utah. Apparently the university is looking at cutting smaller programs and used the mining engineering program as an example. In our humble opinion, now isn’t the time to be cut such important programs. If anything, the country should be pushing enrollment. Alumni, Tier 1 Majors, Engineering Firms - time to make the University of Utah hear your displeasure! If nothing else, here are four student leaders you may want to scope out for recruitment. (The Salt Lake Tribune)

• 🇿🇦 Newly discovered but ancient bacteria at the bottom of gold mines near Carletonville, South Africa have led a team of international scientists to believe there could be life below the surface of Mars. Their study shows that microbes, lying 3kms below the earths surface, appear to have survived for tens of millions of years living on hydrogen and sulphate, and not oxygen. Sounds like the opening of a scary movie to us! (IOL)

• 🇨🇦 COOL JOB ALERT! The Association for Mineral Exploration (AME) is looking for a new President & CEO. The organization is the lead association for the mineral exploration and development industry based in British Columbia. Lincoln Strategic has been engaged to oversee the search. Learn more here —> (LinkedIn)

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