The announcement last week that the United Kingdom will ban the sale of new petrol and diesel cars by 2040, following a similar move by France, is setting the stage for a major boom in lithium mining in Western Australia, according to Shane Kempton, CEO of Professionals Real Estate Group.
According to Kempton, lithium battery powered automobiles will grow more commonplace throughout the world over the next two decades. This in turn will fuel a massive boom in global lithium production.
“WA is in the box seat to benefit from this green power boom as the state has huge deposits of lithium and already produces one third of the world’s lithium through the Greenbushes mine in the south west of the state,” Kempton said.
“There are already $2 billion in lithium projects in the pipeline in [Western Australia], with more than 1,000 employed in the sector which is likely to more than double or treble in the next few years,” he added. “Not only will thousands of Western Australians be employed in mining lithium but also in the down processing of the mineral.”
Tianqi, one of China’s biggest lithium companies, is currently building a $400m processing plant in WA. The processing plant will turn lithium concentrate worth about $1,000 a tonne into lithium hydroxide, which sells for more than 10 times this figure, according to Kempton.
“This downstream processing will create thousands of new sustainable jobs in Western Australia which will have a major positive impact on the local property market moving forward,” Kempton said.
The future demand for lithium could have the same stimulatory impact on WA’s economy as the discovery and demand for oil had on the oil rich Gulf states during the 20th century.
“WA has still a relatively small population and the lithium driven economic boom will result in a huge demand for property as people move to the state to secure a better financial future for themselves,” Kempton said.
“Property investors who take a medium to long term approach to the real estate [market] should now be focusing on WA and fully recognise the prime investment opportunities in real estate that now exist in the state before the lithium boom hits.”
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