this indicates that there is potential for significantly more investment in WA. If only 10% of this investment forecast range is invested in Australia then this would amount to A$45 – A$97 billion. In turn this would substantially alter the forecasts in this report in a positive manner. In addition to lithium there are investments into other minerals to support the industrial transformation currently underway. According to the Lithium Value Chain diagram in Figure 8 , over US$297 billion (A$385 billion), of value will be created in the electro-chemical processing industries. Western Australia has the potential to capture approximately 10% of this market (A$38.6 billion) and would be in addition to the normal mining and refining. These cell components include the production of cathode materials, anode materials, electrolytes, separators and other battery related materials. The forecast is estimated to be up to A$20 billion into these cell components until 2025 and follows the availability of raw materials from the refineries being built.
Figure 24: Estimate of capital investment 2018 – 2025 24
Estimated Total Capital Investment 2017 - 2025
$6,000
$5,000
$4,000
$3,000
$2,000
$1,000
$0
2017
2018
2019
2020
2021
2022
2023
2024
2025
Mining and refineries investment
Potential -Secondary processing investment
Total investment per year
Source: InfraNomics. Forecast estimates are at nominal values.
“ "The investment in mining and refineries is already underway based on decisions made several years ago. It is this second wave of secondary processing investment that is starting and is currently in this investment decision window that WA needs to target. Companies and countries are currently making multi-billion decisions on where to locate secondary processing and assembly plants around the world. It is these plants that WA needs to target in 2018 as the investment decision window will likely close sometime in 2019. Without the WA government, industry and community working together in the most competitive of global markets, the opportunity will be taken elsewhere."
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