Latest / 360 with Katie Woolf / TIVAN Executive Chair Grant Wilson says the company hopes to eventually process critical minerals like vanadium that can store renewable energy at the Middle Arm Precinct

Transcript

TIVAN Executive Chair Grant Wilson says the company hopes to eventually process critical minerals like vanadium that can store renewable energy at the Middle Arm Precinct · 360 with Katie Woolf

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  Speaker 1: Now, the Northern Territory Government on Friday announced their next
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  Speaker 1: steps when it comes to developing the Middle Arm Sustainable
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  Speaker 1: Development Precinct. You would have heard us speaking on the
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  Speaker 1: show during the week that was, and Deputy Chief Minister
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  Speaker 1: Nicole Madison joined us to tell us that the government
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  Speaker 1: says the precinct is being developed in an effort to
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  Speaker 1: attract industries that reflect what the territory's future economy is
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  Speaker 1: going to look like, including hydrogen, carbon capture, natural gas,
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  Speaker 1: advanced manufacturing and minerals processing. Now to give interested companies
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  Speaker 1: the certainty as they develop those projects at Middle Arm,
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  Speaker 1: the Northern Territory Government issued not to deal commitments to
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  Speaker 1: five proponents over specific parcels of land at the precinct.
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  Speaker 1: One of those proponents is Taiwan, and Taiwan Executive Chair
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  Speaker 1: Grant Wilson joins me on the line. Good morning to you, Grant.
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  Speaker 2: Hey, Katie, how are you going?
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, really good, Thanks so much for your time this morning. Now, Grant,
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  Speaker 1: tell us what exactly you know, what does Taiwan do
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  Speaker 1: for those out there listening who've got no idea?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, sure, And I should say, Katie, I'm reliably
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  Speaker 2: told that you're like the voice of Darwin, so very
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  Speaker 2: happy to call in any time.
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  Speaker 1: Thank you.
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  Speaker 2: Thaiban stands for titanium and vanadium sort of mashed together.
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  Speaker 2: So we're a critical minerals company with major projects up
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  Speaker 2: around Windham called Spiwar and some interest in central Australia
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  Speaker 2: around Tea Tree a side they're called Mount Peak. But yes,
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  Speaker 2: we've been at Middle Arms since January. We had to
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  Speaker 2: do an ideal from February. We're including the announcement on Friday,
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  Speaker 2: which is a very important announcement, and we're looking to
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  Speaker 2: process critical minerals at scale and specifically focused on vanadium.
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  Speaker 2: Vanadiums are very forward facing critical mineral which can be
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  Speaker 2: used to make large scale grid batteries, which can ultimately
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  Speaker 2: store energy from renewable sources such as solar and winds
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  Speaker 2: and can start to contribute to the long journey towards
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  Speaker 2: net zero and the energy transition.
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  Speaker 1: I had it sounds like pretty pivotal mineral and pretty
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  Speaker 1: pivotal business that's going to be required as we do
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  Speaker 1: transition more so to renewables.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, very much so. At the moment in critical minerals,
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  Speaker 2: there's a lot of hyper around lithium and that's got
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  Speaker 2: a use case in electric vehicles. So mobile batteries rares
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  Speaker 2: as well have been making a lot of headway in
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  Speaker 2: terms of its use in magnets, and that's relevant again
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  Speaker 2: to electric vehicles, the wind turbines and things like that.
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  Speaker 2: Vanadium is a little bit further down the track because
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  Speaker 2: it's more focused on making large, as I said, grid
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  Speaker 2: storage batteries. So you can think of, you know, large
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  Speaker 2: green batteries which ultimately can store energy which can be
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  Speaker 2: attached to the electricity grid. Now that's different than mobile
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  Speaker 2: batteries electric vehicles, as I mentioned, and the use case
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  Speaker 2: is really important in Australia because ultimately we do have
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  Speaker 2: to start to transition industrial facilities, towns and even cities
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  Speaker 2: away from coal and gas. So it's the multi decad journey.
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  Speaker 2: But vanadium is actually the prefer technology invented here in
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  Speaker 2: Australia as well the r SB. So it's an exciting
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  Speaker 2: initiative and we're proud to be part of it.
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  Speaker 1: So Grant, tell me, what does the announcement on Friday
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  Speaker 1: and the Northern Territory government, you know, basically coming out
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  Speaker 1: and saying that they are giving those interested companies like Taiwan,
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  Speaker 1: that commitment that you know you've got the preferred site
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  Speaker 1: there at Middle Arm.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah. I sort of view it as the start of
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  Speaker 2: a journey, Katie, because this is a multi year, multi
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  Speaker 2: decade journey for the precinct and the government's working being
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  Speaker 2: we're working very hard behind the scenes for a couple
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  Speaker 2: of years on bringing together a governance framework and environmental framework,
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  Speaker 2: and now they're comfortable and they're officially advanced to start
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  Speaker 2: naming proponents. I expect there'll be others, you know, down
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  Speaker 2: the track as well. I would say it's an incredibly
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  Speaker 2: important initiative for the NT economy. The anti economy does
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  Speaker 2: have sort of choke points, lack of poor infrastructure being
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  Speaker 2: one of them. Opening up is up to multi industry
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  Speaker 2: US important and really the purpose is to encourage industrial
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  Speaker 2: companies such as ourselves to engage in common use infrastructure,
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  Speaker 2: the purpose there being to defray capital operational costs across
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  Speaker 2: the precinct, but also to ensure that impacts environmental impacts
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  Speaker 2: in particular are minimize. And obviously that's going to be
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  Speaker 2: a journey ahead for the Middle Arm Sustainable Development Precinct.
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  Speaker 2: It's going to be making low news I'm sure, yeah,
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  Speaker 2: Adie in and around, and I've spent a lot of
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  Speaker 2: time the last six months on the ground with community
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  Speaker 2: stakeholders making sure that our ground game for Taiwan is
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  Speaker 2: certainly intact.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, I was going to ask, you know, the ease
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  Speaker 1: always concerns, particularly when you talk about the development of
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  Speaker 1: Middle Arm, those environmental impacts. So what mitigation work does
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  Speaker 1: need to be done, for example, by the likes of Taiwan.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, I think what should look out for in the
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  Speaker 2: next couple of months is a really extensive public reveal.
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  Speaker 2: So this would be the Strategic environ Mental Assessment, and
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  Speaker 2: you know it'll be publicly on display for I think
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  Speaker 2: thirty to sixty days, and this will show the work
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  Speaker 2: that the master planning team has been doing at DIPPLE.
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  Speaker 2: It will afford community and all stakeholders an opportunity to
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  Speaker 2: understand aspects of the precinct which have not yet been detailed.
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  Speaker 2: So this will run the gamut from sort of the
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  Speaker 2: corporate structure of the precinct to governance of the precinct
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  Speaker 2: and most importantly to the environmental impact statement. So here
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  Speaker 2: you're focused on trying to understand the baseline scenario for
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  Speaker 2: all the proponents in terms of their cumulative impact on
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  Speaker 2: things like air, water, harbor itself. And so I'd be
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  Speaker 2: encouraging community broadly defined to reserve judgment at this stage,
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  Speaker 2: because I think you're going to find a lot more
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  Speaker 2: detail when that goes public. And that's the point at
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  Speaker 2: which you know, we're really looking for community to engage,
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  Speaker 2: and we'll be sitting back and watching that, carefully participating
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  Speaker 2: that as well, and ultimately adapting our position at time
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  Speaker 2: then to ensure that we retain our social license shop brand.
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  Speaker 2: Grant tell me.
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  Speaker 1: You know, because there is going to be people listening
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  Speaker 1: this morning as well thinking to themselves what kind of
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  Speaker 1: jobs could this create? And you know, what is it
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  Speaker 1: going to mean for the local economy? From your perspective,
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  Speaker 1: what will it mean?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, I think it's really important. And the way I
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  Speaker 2: sort of view it is that the NT has been
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  Speaker 2: left behind in many ways in the resources sector, you know,
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  Speaker 2: for a long period of time. If you look at
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  Speaker 2: the NT's economy, I sort of view it as functionally
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  Speaker 2: broadcased through perfectly playing own source revenues less of billion dollars,
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  Speaker 2: you're spending sort of seven eight billion dollars a year.
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  Speaker 2: The gap is filled by camera, so it's really important
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  Speaker 2: something like this comes along which does have the support
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  Speaker 2: of camera for it to take shape. In terms of
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  Speaker 2: jobs for time end, we're looking at probably fifteen hundred
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  Speaker 2: jobs in the construction phase broadly, that's twenty twenty six,
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  Speaker 2: twenty seven, twenty eight. And then as in contrast that
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  Speaker 2: say impact we had to the boom bust, we're looking
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  Speaker 2: at around a thousand long term jobs and we're doing
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  Speaker 2: a lot of work already with institutions such as charles
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  Speaker 2: Dale University to think hard about how it can train
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  Speaker 2: people up from the grassroots level. So these are sorts
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  Speaker 2: of the jobs of the future, and we're putting in
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  Speaker 2: a lot of work on vocational educational pathways practically to
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  Speaker 2: train that workforce up. So I agree. I heard Minison
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  Speaker 2: Madison on the radio this morning talking about avoiding the
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  Speaker 2: boom bus cycle. I fully agree with that, and we're
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  Speaker 2: very much about creating a generational opportunity to territoriums. Now,
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  Speaker 2: different proponents will have different profiles, but that's very much
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  Speaker 2: what Taiband's about.
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  Speaker 1: And it's really interesting what you said then. I think
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  Speaker 1: you said you almost see the territory as being functioning
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  Speaker 1: broke and look, sometimes it feels like that, and I
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  Speaker 1: know that. You know, over the years we have really
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  Speaker 1: seen the impacts of Boom and Bustard. I think what
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  Speaker 1: it's done is it's made Territorians in a lot of
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  Speaker 1: ways a little bit skeptical and a little bit cautious.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, I think that's fair, and it's a lot of criticism.
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  Speaker 2: It's just love and Katie to see your listeners benefits.
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  Speaker 2: I grew up in our springs, yeah, in the eighties, right,
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  Speaker 2: So I'm here for the right reasons. I understand the territory.
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  Speaker 2: I came back and took control of this company to
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  Speaker 2: make a difference and to contribute to transformational change, which
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  Speaker 2: I think is fundamentally necessary. Community level in terms of
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  Speaker 2: engagementtween first nations, community and resources especially, I think that's
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  Speaker 2: quite fractured, and I'm working hard on the ground with
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  Speaker 2: traditional owners, leaders and development corporations that are relevant here
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  Speaker 2: to make sure that we do everything right. And so
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  Speaker 2: I view it as an opportunity to reset and to
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  Speaker 2: create new pathways. I know that there will be aspects
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  Speaker 2: of the precincts which are contentious at time. End will
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  Speaker 2: be out and proud I'll be doing a lot of
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  Speaker 2: media looking to engage grow suits level publicly as well,
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  Speaker 2: and I want to emphasize Katie, I think our project
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  Speaker 2: is going to be first in the queue on the
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  Speaker 2: timeframes that are public at the moment, So a lot
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  Speaker 2: of this. You know, we need at time end to
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  Speaker 2: take a very forward leadership position for our company of course,
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  Speaker 2: but also for the precinct were sort of are bringing
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  Speaker 2: the sustainability in. You know, we're parted up with some
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  Speaker 2: cable very forward facing mission looking to contribute to the
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  Speaker 2: achievement of net zero emissions to the country of a
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  Speaker 2: multi decade VIUEW. So we're going to be very public
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  Speaker 2: about this and I think that will play a very
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  Speaker 2: very constructive role as a good citizen at the precinc.
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  Speaker 1: So Grant, tell me how far off are you do
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  Speaker 1: you think from beginning work in the Northern Territory or
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  Speaker 1: really getting things underway.
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  Speaker 2: They Yeah, and this is where expectations management, which is
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  Speaker 2: what you said before, is really relevant because major projects
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  Speaker 2: have struggled significantly. You know, in the territory. It's no
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  Speaker 2: secret these projects are really really hard to get up
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  Speaker 2: and here we have coordination issues as well. So what
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  Speaker 2: I would say is that we've got great support from
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  Speaker 2: anti government from Canberra. There's a lot of sophisticated people
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  Speaker 2: that have done a lot of work on the precinc.
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  Speaker 2: I think there'll be commercial synergies at the precink for us.
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  Speaker 2: We've got a couple of years of commissions work ahead
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  Speaker 2: over at SPEWA, which is our primary resort. We're still
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  Speaker 2: in a lab environment at PSIRO, a strategic partner of ours,
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  Speaker 2: where we're working on the critical minerals process in technology,
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  Speaker 2: which is very very sophisticated technology. We hope to be
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  Speaker 2: in a position to build a pilot plant, like a
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  Speaker 2: big demonstration plan to show off Taipan technology at East
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  Speaker 2: as early as next year, and that'll be a great
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  Speaker 2: point for killing engagement and then we'll be on the
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  Speaker 2: pathway for the precinct looking to break ground throughout twenty
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  Speaker 2: twenty six. But I do think that a lot of
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  Speaker 2: the common news and infrastructure which the government has slated
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  Speaker 2: can be brought into the public domain sooner than that
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  Speaker 2: and community can really get their minds around how it
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  Speaker 2: will shape the peninsula and what contribution it can make
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  Speaker 2: to Darwin as well.
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  Speaker 1: Well. Grant Wilson and Alice Springs. Boy, Hi, you're raised
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  Speaker 1: in Alice. That is very interesting to know, wonderful to hear.
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  Speaker 1: In fact, mate, I really appreciate your time this morning.
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  Speaker 1: Thank you so very much for having a chat with us.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, that was a pleasure, Katy anytime. Thanks, thank you,