Funding for early to mid-stage critical minerals projects with international partners

The International Partnerships in Critical Minerals Program provides grants to support early to mid-stage critical minerals projects that contribute to building end-to-end supply chains with Australia’s international partners in the critical minerals sector.

Background

The program will contribute to the implementation of the Australian Government's Critical Minerals Strategy and aims to achieve the following objectives:

• Create diverse, resilient and sustainable supply chains through strong and secure international partnerships,
• build sovereign capability in critical minerals processing, 
• use our critical minerals to become a renewable energy superpower, and 
• extract more value onshore from our resources to create jobs and economic opportunities, including for regional and First Nations communities.

How it Works

The program will provide grants between $2M and $20M to cover up to 50% of eligible expenditure, from a total funding pool of $40M.

The program is open for applications for up to 2 years or until funding has been exhausted. Applications can be submitted at any time and will be assessed on an ongoing basis every four months (with the next assessment batch likely to occur in August 2024).

Applications will be assessed against the selection criteria and meritorious applications will be recommended for funding.

Who can Apply

The grant applicant must be an Australian incorporated entity (including incorporated trustees on behalf of a trust) and the activities must be substantially undertaken in Australia. 

Grant projects must include an international partner which includes foreign governments, state-owned enterprises, private sector and commercial entities.

Priority partner countries include those with existing bilateral agreements with Australia in the critical minerals sector, and are outlined in the Government's Critical Minerals Strategy.  

You can partner with more than one other organisation, but there must be an eligible lead applicant.

Eligible Projects

Project activities must occur between the post-exploration and final investment decision stages of the project, and must be producing or planning to produce critical mineral(s) as listed in Australia’s Critical Minerals List.

The grant will fund activities including:

• Research and development activities and collaboration,
• Pilot and demonstration plants,
• Commercialisation of technology and IP that benefits the sector,
• Feasibility studies,
• Capacity expansions,
• Infrastructure upgrades and integration of critical mineral processing technologies, and
• Development of downstream processing capability.

Eligible Expenditure

Grant funding can be used for:

• Labour
• Contractors
• Plant and equipment
• Travel and certain overseas costs
• Other eligible direct project expenditure.

Key Dates

The project must be completed by 31 March 2027.

Our team is skilled at preparing competitive applications and strategically positioning projects to align with program objectives and the factors that drive funding decisions. We have also developed processes and templates to ensure maximum efficiency.

Please reach out if you would like to discuss any of the above.