NADIA MITSOPOULOS: Thank you for joining me this morning at 26 to 9. Well, is WA's nickel industry dying a slow death? Is certainly appears that way. Now BHP added another nail in the coffin yesterday when it announced it's looking at shutting down its Nickel West operations which includes the country's only nickel refinery and smelter. Now this is on top of another five miners who've recently announced plans to either scale back or close their nickel production. So what can be done to save the nickel industry? Well, Madeleine King is the Federal Resources Minister, and with me now. Minister, good morning. 

MINISTER MADELEINE KING: Good morning, Nadia. How are you going? 

NADIA MITSOPOULOS: I'm well, thank you. Did you, Minister, have any warning that BHP would be making the announcement they did yesterday and considering closing their nickel operations? 

MINISTER MADELEINE KING: Well, we've known, of course, since around late December that there is increasing pressure on the nickel market internationally, which therefore, falls straight into our laps here in Australia, particularly Western Australia, so we've seen other operations, as you've mentioned, reduce or go into care and maintenance themselves, but the BHP announcement is a very significant moment for the nickel industry, there's no doubt about it; it's very serious for probably for BHP's operations, but given that other nickel facilities feed in to their operations, it does have potentially significant ramifications. But I do want to be clear, and I had a long chat ‑‑ 

NADIA MITSOPOULOS: Just on that point ‑‑ 

MINISTER MADELEINE KING: Sorry, go on, yep. 

NADIA MITSOPOULOS: Just on point, Minister, I'm sorry to interrupt. 

MINISTER MADELEINE KING: Sure, that's okay. 

NADIA MITSOPOULOS: You're saying significant ramifications.  If this does go ahead and it is closed, is that the end of the nickel industry here in WA; is that what you're saying? 

MINISTER MADELEINE KING: If Nickel West went into care and maintenance, which usually leads into permanent shut‑downs, it would be very difficult to re‑start this industry. So this is a very serious moment, and I'm very cognisant of that, and so is the Prime Minister and the Treasurer, and we've been talking about this over the ‑ not just the course of this week, I might add, because, you know, given it's the only refinery of its kind in WA, when the rest of the market was downgrading, as it has been, you know, we see where the end could be. So, you know, we're very aware of this issue. But because it is driven really aggressively by international markets, so there's not immediate things ‑ well, there are some immediate things, and I'll talk about them in a minute ‑ but how we look at the nickel market and how a Federal Government can help it over the long‑term is a very complicated and complex matter. Not to say we're not doing that; we just want to make sure we get it right. And we've been speaking with BHP, but not just BHP, there are many other actors in here as well, and I might add, AMEC and CME ‑ their representative groups have been very productively contributing to discussions on the pathway forward. So I feel the Nickel West discussion really keenly, and I feel for the many workers that will be worried, you know, right now about their prospects, and you know, as I've said many times, I've driven past Nickel West all my life, and sometimes I get to go into it and see the impressive work that goes on there, so I know how important it is to do all we can to keep it going. 

NADIA MITSOPOULOS: A couple of things to expand on there, Minister. Madeleine King, the Federal Resources Minister is my guest this morning. How many jobs are we talking here? What have you been told? 

MINISTER MADELEINE KING: Well, I mean at the moment, you know, it's still a discussion that BHP are having. So there's no immediate job losses, is my understanding, but obviously if in, you know, six or whatever months it does ‑ they make that commercial decision, then yeah, very serious job losses are on the cards. So that's why we're working ‑ I've spoken often with Premier Roger Cook about what we can do to work together as State and Federal Governments to avoid that situation 'cause that's what we want to avoid, and we've got to remember how important nickel is in our ambitions to become a serious player in renewable energy and battery storage. But, you know, right now, at this moment there is an extraordinary over‑supply of nickel in the global market. So usually when governments intervene in critical minerals it's because there's a shortage, and we can't get hold of the stuff we want, but now there's so much of it, the prices have plummeted, in a very different market to what it was only five years ago, so ‑‑ 

NADIA MITSOPOULOS: And we've spoken about this, but of course, you know, you're talking there also about that glut of cheap nickel from Indonesia, which is having a significant impact. So what can governments do? You've been talking, the Premier, Roger Cook has been talking to BHP. What's on offer? 

MINISTER MADELEINE KING: Yeah. Well, I know obviously that the Premier has been discussing, and I've been discussing with him and Minister David Michael about royalty relief, which is a very positive step that the State Government is actively looking into. The lever I have personally, which I decided to do yesterday, and I'm letting you and your listeners know today, is I will put nickel on Australia's Critical Minerals List. It was a strategic material, because we knew the market could have issues, and since I named the critical minerals late last year, you know, dominos have fallen very quickly, so we are activating that to go on to the Critical Minerals List, and that has ramifications and possibilities for the nickel industry in terms of access to the Critical Minerals Facility, which is a $4 billion facility. 

NADIA MITSOPOULOS: Can you just expand on that then?  

MINISTER MADELEINE KING: Sure. 

NADIA MITSOPOULOS: So you're putting it on the Critical Minerals List. What does that then mean? What does that enable you to do? 

MINISTER MADELEINE KING: Yeah, well, it enables nickel operations to access the Critical Minerals Facility, which is a $4 billion fund. We extended that fund in, I think it was November last year to add another $2 billion into the facility. So that's low‑cost loans that de-risk capital investment into projects. So this might be something that ‑ it's run by Export Finance Australia, my very good colleague, the Trade Minister, Senator Don Farrell, and that enables say BHP or others; there's IGO and others that might look at how they invest in say the Kalgoorlie smelter of BHP, which is another, I know, an important decision that's ahead of BHP. So this will now make sure nickel can fall within that particular facility. And the other thing it does is it helps with our international partners too, that we move this to the Critical Minerals List so that we can attract some of their investment from their national financing bodies, like Export‑Import Bank, or all the ones that Japan and Korea and the US all have to help solidify these supply chains. 

NADIA MITSOPOULOS: Minister, only two months ago, mining lobby groups like AMEC actually said it was a wasted opportunity when you didn't put nickel on the Critical Minerals List at that point. You've changed your mind now. Have you been forced into the situation, or could you have done this earlier? 

MINISTER MADELEINE KING: Oh, I mean I could have done it earlier, but we weren't at the same position earlier, so the decisions to be made around the Critical Minerals List and strategic materials was one of, you know, if you make everything a priority, nothing's a priority, right; so that's what I had to balance up, and when we finalised the Critical Minerals List, nickel wasn't in this position, and what I did make sure I could do though in developing this policy was make sure I could very quickly move something from the strategic materials to the Critical Minerals List, and that's what I'm doing today. So, you know, we'll move ahead, and I might add, even before it goes on the Critical Minerals List, there's a number of facilities available to the resources industry, that they might want to apply for as well. Export Finance Australia is always standing ready to be there, but I appreciate sometimes that doesn't work for every project that they've got on their books. 

NADIA MITSOPOULOS: Madeleine King, the Federal Resources Minister is my guest. Minister, last month, you expressed support for the idea of having different prices for different kinds of nickel which would hopefully incentivize manufacturers to pay a premium for the high‑quality nickel, which is what we produce here in Australia. That is not up to you though, that's up to the London Metals Exchange. 

MINISTER MADELEINE KING: Yeah. 

NADIA MITSOPOULOS: Is there anything you can do to lobby for that change, or is that something near on impossible? 

MINISTER MADELEINE KING: Yeah, no, it is difficult, there's no doubt about it. The London Metals Exchange has its own commercial interests, which might not be the same as our strategic interests, or even our ambition to make sure what we make is as clean and green as possible through our high ESG and worker safety standards. But I am progressing a lot of discussions, and I know, you know, this takes some time, regretfully, but that's how it kind of goes in these international circles. But we've been working very actively with the US, and I'll be meeting with my counterparts in Canada next month, another mining country, to progress the accounting for these high standards in international markets. And the London Metal Exchange is not the only exchange we have available to look at that. Ambassador Rudd in America is being very active looking at what markets we can put this ESG premium into that they will accept. And the EU as well is another very important partner that has recently recognised in their Critical Materials Act the importance of those high standards. Now we just need to make the push to make it reflected in the price, so that these nickel operations that are mostly in Western Australia, and there's one in Tasmania, can regain their foothold into that international market against this extraordinary flooding of the international nickel market out of Indonesia, funded through China, of course. 

NADIA MITSOPOULOS: Is this too little too late? Everyone could see this coming. 

MINISTER MADELEINE KING: Well, I'm not sure we saw the fall this quickly, but you know, I accept there will be different views on that. I'm determined to do as much as I can, and thus I've acted quickly in relation to the positioning of nickel within the Critical Minerals List, but you know, I'll be working with the Prime Minister and the Treasurer, and of course Premier Cook in coming days to make sure we do have an action plan, and of course, the nickel industry itself.

NADIA MITSOPOULOS: Finally, Minister, do you concede that if the nickel industry wasn't able to be saved here, then that would end any possibility of establishing a lithium ion battery manufacturing industry here in WA? 

MINISTER MADELEINE KING: No, there is always opportunities across the supply chain and what the ingredients that go into batteries. It would be ‑ I would be very sad if this is where we happen ‑ it would be a blow to our sovereign capacity if we weren't able to refine and make nickel sulphide, and that's why I'm determined to make sure that we can in future. But this is, you know, we are an international market, and you know, for better or worse we are competing against nations that have a greater population, much more funds to hand than Australia as a nation of 27 million people do. So we've got to, you know, make sure we get in that international investment to help us along on this path, and you know, I'll be doing my level best to make sure we can make this industry continue, 'cause it's over 50 years old, and it's changed and it's very important to us as a future commodity. 

NADIA MITSOPOULOS: There are challenges. There's a lot riding on it. I appreciate your time, Madeleine King. Thanks. 

MINISTER MADELEINE KING: Yeah, thanks, Nadia. 

NADIA MITSOPOULOS: She is, of course, the Federal Resources Minister. If you're just tuning in, just recapping, she has just announced on the show that nickel will now be put on to Australia's Critical Minerals List so nickel producers can access industry support programs like low‑interest loans, so it is opening up access to money.