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

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Now, the Northern Territory Government on Friday announced their next
steps when it comes to developing the Middle Arm Sustainable
Development Precinct. You would have heard us speaking on the
show during the week that was, and Deputy Chief Minister
Nicole Madison joined us to tell us that the government
says the precinct is being developed in an effort to
attract industries that reflect what the territory's future economy is

(00:22):
going to look like, including hydrogen, carbon capture, natural gas,
advanced manufacturing and minerals processing. Now to give interested companies
the certainty as they develop those projects at Middle Arm,
the Northern Territory Government issued not to deal commitments to
five proponents over specific parcels of land at the precinct.

(00:44):
One of those proponents is Taiwan, and Taiwan Executive Chair
Grant Wilson joins me on the line. Good morning to you, Grant.

Speaker 2 (00:53):
Hey, Katie, how are you going?

Speaker 1 (00:54):
Yeah, really good, Thanks so much for your time this morning. Now, Grant,
tell us what exactly you know, what does Taiwan do
for those out there listening who've got no idea?

Speaker 2 (01:06):
Yeah, yeah, sure, And I should say, Katie, I'm reliably
told that you're like the voice of Darwin, so very
happy to call in any time.

Speaker 1 (01:13):
Thank you.

Speaker 2 (01:14):
Thaiban stands for titanium and vanadium sort of mashed together.
So we're a critical minerals company with major projects up
around Windham called Spiwar and some interest in central Australia
around Tea Tree a side they're called Mount Peak. But yes,
we've been at Middle Arms since January. We had to
do an ideal from February. We're including the announcement on Friday,

(01:35):
which is a very important announcement, and we're looking to
process critical minerals at scale and specifically focused on vanadium.
Vanadiums are very forward facing critical mineral which can be
used to make large scale grid batteries, which can ultimately
store energy from renewable sources such as solar and winds
and can start to contribute to the long journey towards

(01:57):
net zero and the energy transition.

Speaker 1 (01:59):
I had it sounds like pretty pivotal mineral and pretty
pivotal business that's going to be required as we do
transition more so to renewables.

Speaker 2 (02:09):
Yeah, very much so. At the moment in critical minerals,
there's a lot of hyper around lithium and that's got
a use case in electric vehicles. So mobile batteries rares
as well have been making a lot of headway in
terms of its use in magnets, and that's relevant again
to electric vehicles, the wind turbines and things like that.
Vanadium is a little bit further down the track because
it's more focused on making large, as I said, grid

(02:32):
storage batteries. So you can think of, you know, large
green batteries which ultimately can store energy which can be
attached to the electricity grid. Now that's different than mobile
batteries electric vehicles, as I mentioned, and the use case
is really important in Australia because ultimately we do have
to start to transition industrial facilities, towns and even cities

(02:54):
away from coal and gas. So it's the multi decad journey.
But vanadium is actually the prefer technology invented here in
Australia as well the r SB. So it's an exciting
initiative and we're proud to be part of it.

Speaker 1 (03:06):
So Grant, tell me, what does the announcement on Friday
and the Northern Territory government, you know, basically coming out
and saying that they are giving those interested companies like Taiwan,
that commitment that you know you've got the preferred site
there at Middle Arm.

Speaker 2 (03:23):
Yeah. I sort of view it as the start of
a journey, Katie, because this is a multi year, multi
decade journey for the precinct and the government's working being
we're working very hard behind the scenes for a couple
of years on bringing together a governance framework and environmental framework,
and now they're comfortable and they're officially advanced to start

(03:43):
naming proponents. I expect there'll be others, you know, down
the track as well. I would say it's an incredibly
important initiative for the NT economy. The anti economy does
have sort of choke points, lack of poor infrastructure being
one of them. Opening up is up to multi industry
US important and really the purpose is to encourage industrial

(04:04):
companies such as ourselves to engage in common use infrastructure,
the purpose there being to defray capital operational costs across
the precinct, but also to ensure that impacts environmental impacts
in particular are minimize. And obviously that's going to be
a journey ahead for the Middle Arm Sustainable Development Precinct.
It's going to be making low news I'm sure, yeah,

(04:27):
Adie in and around, and I've spent a lot of
time the last six months on the ground with community
stakeholders making sure that our ground game for Taiwan is
certainly intact.

Speaker 1 (04:36):
Yeah, I was going to ask, you know, the ease
always concerns, particularly when you talk about the development of
Middle Arm, those environmental impacts. So what mitigation work does
need to be done, for example, by the likes of Taiwan.

Speaker 2 (04:50):
Yeah, I think what should look out for in the
next couple of months is a really extensive public reveal.
So this would be the Strategic environ Mental Assessment, and
you know it'll be publicly on display for I think
thirty to sixty days, and this will show the work
that the master planning team has been doing at DIPPLE.

(05:12):
It will afford community and all stakeholders an opportunity to
understand aspects of the precinct which have not yet been detailed.
So this will run the gamut from sort of the
corporate structure of the precinct to governance of the precinct
and most importantly to the environmental impact statement. So here
you're focused on trying to understand the baseline scenario for

(05:33):
all the proponents in terms of their cumulative impact on
things like air, water, harbor itself. And so I'd be
encouraging community broadly defined to reserve judgment at this stage,
because I think you're going to find a lot more
detail when that goes public. And that's the point at
which you know, we're really looking for community to engage,

(05:54):
and we'll be sitting back and watching that, carefully participating
that as well, and ultimately adapting our position at time
then to ensure that we retain our social license shop brand.
Grant tell me.

Speaker 1 (06:05):
You know, because there is going to be people listening
this morning as well thinking to themselves what kind of
jobs could this create? And you know, what is it
going to mean for the local economy? From your perspective,
what will it mean?

Speaker 2 (06:18):
Yeah, I think it's really important. And the way I
sort of view it is that the NT has been
left behind in many ways in the resources sector, you know,
for a long period of time. If you look at
the NT's economy, I sort of view it as functionally
broadcased through perfectly playing own source revenues less of billion dollars,
you're spending sort of seven eight billion dollars a year.

(06:39):
The gap is filled by camera, so it's really important
something like this comes along which does have the support
of camera for it to take shape. In terms of
jobs for time end, we're looking at probably fifteen hundred
jobs in the construction phase broadly, that's twenty twenty six,
twenty seven, twenty eight. And then as in contrast that

(07:00):
say impact we had to the boom bust, we're looking
at around a thousand long term jobs and we're doing
a lot of work already with institutions such as charles
Dale University to think hard about how it can train
people up from the grassroots level. So these are sorts
of the jobs of the future, and we're putting in
a lot of work on vocational educational pathways practically to

(07:21):
train that workforce up. So I agree. I heard Minison
Madison on the radio this morning talking about avoiding the
boom bus cycle. I fully agree with that, and we're
very much about creating a generational opportunity to territoriums. Now,
different proponents will have different profiles, but that's very much
what Taiband's about.

Speaker 1 (07:37):
And it's really interesting what you said then. I think
you said you almost see the territory as being functioning
broke and look, sometimes it feels like that, and I
know that. You know, over the years we have really
seen the impacts of Boom and Bustard. I think what
it's done is it's made Territorians in a lot of
ways a little bit skeptical and a little bit cautious.

Speaker 2 (07:57):
Yeah, I think that's fair, and it's a lot of criticism.
It's just love and Katie to see your listeners benefits.
I grew up in our springs, yeah, in the eighties, right,
So I'm here for the right reasons. I understand the territory.
I came back and took control of this company to
make a difference and to contribute to transformational change, which
I think is fundamentally necessary. Community level in terms of

(08:18):
engagementtween first nations, community and resources especially, I think that's
quite fractured, and I'm working hard on the ground with
traditional owners, leaders and development corporations that are relevant here
to make sure that we do everything right. And so
I view it as an opportunity to reset and to
create new pathways. I know that there will be aspects

(08:40):
of the precincts which are contentious at time. End will
be out and proud I'll be doing a lot of
media looking to engage grow suits level publicly as well,
and I want to emphasize Katie, I think our project
is going to be first in the queue on the
timeframes that are public at the moment, So a lot
of this. You know, we need at time end to
take a very forward leadership position for our company of course,

(09:01):
but also for the precinct were sort of are bringing
the sustainability in. You know, we're parted up with some
cable very forward facing mission looking to contribute to the
achievement of net zero emissions to the country of a
multi decade VIUEW. So we're going to be very public
about this and I think that will play a very
very constructive role as a good citizen at the precinc.

Speaker 1 (09:21):
So Grant, tell me how far off are you do
you think from beginning work in the Northern Territory or
really getting things underway.

Speaker 2 (09:27):
They Yeah, and this is where expectations management, which is
what you said before, is really relevant because major projects
have struggled significantly. You know, in the territory. It's no
secret these projects are really really hard to get up
and here we have coordination issues as well. So what
I would say is that we've got great support from
anti government from Canberra. There's a lot of sophisticated people
that have done a lot of work on the precinc.

(09:49):
I think there'll be commercial synergies at the precink for us.
We've got a couple of years of commissions work ahead
over at SPEWA, which is our primary resort. We're still
in a lab environment at PSIRO, a strategic partner of ours,
where we're working on the critical minerals process in technology,
which is very very sophisticated technology. We hope to be

(10:10):
in a position to build a pilot plant, like a
big demonstration plan to show off Taipan technology at East
as early as next year, and that'll be a great
point for killing engagement and then we'll be on the
pathway for the precinct looking to break ground throughout twenty
twenty six. But I do think that a lot of
the common news and infrastructure which the government has slated

(10:31):
can be brought into the public domain sooner than that
and community can really get their minds around how it
will shape the peninsula and what contribution it can make
to Darwin as well.

Speaker 1 (10:43):
Well. Grant Wilson and Alice Springs. Boy, Hi, you're raised
in Alice. That is very interesting to know, wonderful to hear.
In fact, mate, I really appreciate your time this morning.
Thank you so very much for having a chat with us.

Speaker 2 (10:55):
Yeah, that was a pleasure, Katy anytime. Thanks, thank you,