ABSTRACT
The Australian Critical Minerals Industry is in an extraordinary position at the moment where it has an abundance of critical minerals (albeit in the ground) and significant challenge in extracting it in quantities and time to satisfy the huge increase in demand currently and around the corner. To achieve this will require unprecedented levels of trust within the industry, with key stakeholders and like-minded partner countries. Trust and solid relationships will be needed:
- Between industry and government to identify the right policy conditions needed and to put them in place in time
- To have effective communication within a diverse and disparate industry
- Between industry and financial markets to fund the ambition
- Between industry players to rapidly move downstream
- to restructure the industry out of a monopolistic stranglehold
BIOGRAPHY
Namali Mackay is the Managing Director of the newly formed Critical Minerals Association of Australia. Namali has just returned from 15 years in the UK where most recently she led on the critical minerals agenda for the Australian Trade and Investment Commission (Austrade) in London. With Austrade, she worked with UK and Australian critical minerals stakeholders, on behalf of the Australian Government. Namali is a former Australian diplomat and trade negotiator, covering the trade, industry, resource and climate portfolios during her diplomatic posting at the Australian High Commission in London. Following her posting, Namali was appointed Group Head of International Relations at Prudential plc UK in London where she managed the Group’s trade and international agenda across the ASEAN region. Thereafter during Brexit, Namali was the Trade Advisor to Make UK (the UK’s largest manufacturing industry body) where she worked with UK manufacturers on supply chain and trade strategies for Brexit-readiness.
