The New South Wales (NSW) Government in Australia has announced a comprehensive critical minerals strategy, aiming to position the state as a global leader in the sector.

This plan features a A$250m royalty deferral initiative and a rapid assessment framework for mining projects, which are expected to attract significant clean energy investments and create thousands of jobs.

The NSW Government’s new Critical Minerals and High-Tech Metals Strategy is set to foster investment in 12 ready-for-investment critical minerals mining and processing projects within the state.

These projects require around A$7.6bn in capital investment and are anticipated to generate around 4,600 jobs during their construction phase, with an additional 2,700 ongoing jobs post-completion.

To overcome the industry's challenge of high initial investment costs, the royalty deferral scheme will provide financial relief to new projects in their developmental stages.

This initiative is designed to draw investments to NSW and improve the economic sustainability of the critical minerals sector.

The strategy also includes a collaborative assessment by the Department of Planning Housing and Infrastructure and NSW Resources, aiming to bring more certainty to the planning process for critical minerals projects.

NSW has significant deposits of critical minerals, with 21 out of the 31 minerals identified as critical on a national level located within the state.

The strategy highlights specific priority minerals and metals such as rare earths, scandium, cobalt, copper and silver. These are essential for the clean energy transition and are used in manufacturing products like solar panels and batteries.

The Critical Minerals and High-Tech Metals Strategy is built on five key pillars. These are encouragement of exploration, production incentivisation, development of future-ready skills, establishment of resilient supply chains, and engagement with local communities.

These pillars are designed to minimise investment risks, create an attractive investment environment and ensure responsible mining practices.

The royalty deferral is an opt-in scheme that allows for the deferral of the first five years of royalties.

It targets critical minerals projects that can commence production between 1 July 2025 and 30 June 2030, primarily mine commodities from the Commonwealth Government’s Critical Minerals List and have a market capitalisation under $5bn.

NSW Premier Chris Minns said: “We have got the metals and minerals the world needs, and NSW is open for business.

“We are sending a clear message to Aussie and global miners: invest in NSW. This is about backing regional jobs and manufacturing jobs and taking advantage of the critical minerals boom.

“We want to make sure we fully realise the opportunities that critical minerals and high-tech metals have for NSW.”