2LT Local News

SYDNEY, Feb. 17 (Xinhua) — Western Australia said on Saturday it would offer royalty relief to the Australian state’s crucial nickel industry that has experienced extremely challenging global market conditions.

Western Australia Premier Roger Cook’s government said in a statement that the move is aimed to support thousands of local jobs as well as the state’s vision of becoming a global battery minerals processing hub.

The state government would offer local nickel producers a 50 percent royalty rebate — starting from the March quarter 2024 — and would be available over an 18-month period through a new Nickel Financial Assistance Program, according to the statement.

The rebate would be provided if the average price of nickel in concentrate is below 20,000 U.S. dollars per ton for a given quarter. The rebate would then be repayable by the companies in equal quarterly instalments over the following 24 months.

Challenging global market conditions in recent times have prompted mine and processing plant suspensions and significantly impacted jobs in the Australian state.

These challenging conditions have been caused by a significant structural disruption to the global market prompted by a surge in lower cost supply from other countries, such as Indonesia.

“The nickel industry supported almost 10,000 jobs, and generated sales of more than 5 billion Australian dollars last financial year,” Cook was quoted as saying.

“It is also an essential component of the state’s vision of becoming a global hub for the downstream processing of battery metals,” he said.

The move by Western Australia came one day after the country’s Resources Minister Madeleine King placed nickel on the Critical Minerals List, giving nickel companies opportunity to access financing under the 4 billion Australian Dollar (2.6 billion U.S. dollars) Critical Minerals Facility.