Photo: Betty Seeney
Mega-trends and minerals: the next 30 years in Queensland’s resources sector The Hon. Scott Stewart MP, Queensland Minister for Resources
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lobal mega-trends have shaped Queensland’s resources sector for more than a century: from gold rushes through oil shocks and now decarbonisation. As a government, we are responding to these mega-trends. We are developing a 30-year vision and plan to meet and prosper from new emerging trends: the Queensland Resources Industry Development Plan. Industry 4.0 and automation; environmental, social and governance considerations including climate change; geopolitics — it’s all being factored in, and the final plan will set a path to a transformative but thriving future for the sector. What has the development of the plan been telling us? In a world seeking to decarbonise, the long-term formation of our resources industry is likely to shift and transform. There will be a greater focus on new economy minerals such as copper, cobalt and vanadium as we transition to cleaner 20
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energy. However, the strong economic, social and governance credentials of Queensland and the quality of our metallurgical and thermal coal are likely to see demand continue for these resources for the foreseeable future. The prices of both metallurgical and thermal coal have rallied to record amounts, which is expected to drive a strong recovery in our goods exports from 2021-22. It will continue to be a strength for Queensland over the coming years. Transitional fuel Other opportunities lie in the role gas will play as a transitional fuel to a renewable energy future, by offering a reliable and dispatchable power supply during peak demand periods. Gas is also a vital feedstock for fertiliser production and for our manufacturers as we seek to grow our domestic manufacturing sector and reduce our dependence on imported product. Queensland is the only state securing Australia’s east coast gas supply with exploration and production tenures set aside purely for the domestic market. We will ensure Queensland continues to
develop critical infrastructure to service Queensland’s and Australia’s future resource supply needs. That’s why we’ve invested $5 million to investigate a potential pipeline and infrastructure to improve the delivery of Bowen Basin gas to the domestic and export markets. As a previous Queensland Labor Government showed with the opening up of the Surat Basin a decade ago, the Bowen Basin could be a source of future gas projects and jobs for Queenslanders. The Bowen Basin pipeline also has the potential to make more gas available for Queensland manufacturers. The potential of hydrogen, and Queensland’s ambition to become a hydrogen superpower, offer opportunity for the gas sector to transfer its mega-project planning, design and construction expertise and experience to a fuel of the future. The next phase In this third decade of the 21st century, the next exciting phase for Queensland’s resources industry is in new economy minerals. The world’s attention and action on climate change offer us great opportunity, because we are blessed with
