Lithium Valley Main Report 2018
6.8 Oakajee: Future e-cycling Facility for the Indo-Pacific Region Oakajee is located approximately 23km
industry has only recently developed and most batteries end up in landfill. However, as industry grows the volume of end of life batteries will force countries to recycle, especially as there are a variety of New Energy metals in a battery that would yield additional value through the process. There is an opportunity to develop an international battery recycling business in WA to target this long-term problem of modern society as well as developing a new industry for processing the materials. Oakajee could be the location for this processing. This would allow WA to provide a ‘cradle to grave’ strategy for all New Energy metals allowing greater supply and hedging options. As well there is the potential to create a whole new industry in regional WA with private sector funding and government enabling the development. The catalyst is securing long term e-waste contracts to underpin the development.
north of the major regional centre of the City of Greater Geraldton in Western Australia. Geraldton is located 420km north of Perth (approximately 4.5-hour drive) and has freight rail access. The future Oakajee Port and the surrounding Strategic Industrial Area (SIA) has been identified in the past by previous State Governments as an international gateway to service the Mid-West region. The port and SIA would cover approximately 6,400ha and have the potential to service and support many existing and future industries in the Mid-West region, including export-orientated mineral resources and heavy industrial activities in the 1,100ha industrial core. The Oakajee Port development was suspended for a variety of reasons. In 2018, there is virtually no global recycling of lithium or other New Energy metals as the
The advantages of recycling in Geraldton - Oakajee are: ● ● Excellent port import/export access as the batteries will be sourced internationally and the converted materials sold internationally. ● ● Access to reagents and chemicals for processing. These can be sourced from Kwinana or imported as already occurring in regional mineral processing. ● ● Available technical and specialist staff. There are critical processes requiring specialised chemical engineering and processing skills available locally. ● ● Support from local fabrication, testing, training, process and other related industries. ● ● An opportunity to recycle all the batteries from the Square Kilometre Array and other space related programs. This will provide an initial base load of product. ● ● Potentially processing of raw ores to increase the scale and diversity of the operations. To develop this a long-term supply of e-waste needs to be secured to justify the investment in the Industrial Park facilities. In the deal with the EU proposed in Section 5.2, a long term, say 50-year, supply agreement for e-waste is proposed as this provides the cornerstone agreement for long- term materials supply. In recent years, hi-tech waste has been exported to China for recycling or sent to landfill in developing countries in Africa. Dumping e-waste in Africa is often unethical and environmentally unsustainable and China has recently blocked importing waste so Australia will soon be forced to find alternative solutions to processing locally produced waste. Hi-tech recycling in Australia is an under-developed industry, relying on a history of largely voluntary recycling programs, combined with bulk export of e-waste for overseas processing.
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