The Economic Opportunity from Decarbonising the Pilbara

Mining is a key Australian industry, contributing around 10% of GDP and supporting 1.2 million jobs. The industry uses about 35% of diesel consumed in Australia, about 32 million litres per day.

Consequently, the adoption of decarbonising technologies will significantly impact Australia’s national emissions trajectory, the sustainability of industry, and regional economies.

Cyan Ventures was commissioned by Fortescue to model induced industry responses and size the economic opportunity under business-as-usual and various policy settings. These settings included:

• A $50 million annual cap on Fuel Tax Credits, which caps the refunds miners receive for diesel fuel excise to $50M p.a.
• Common User Transmission Infrastructure, where industry and government work to develop a shared electricity grid that powers multiple companies.

• Decarbonising the Pilbara could unlock $13.2 billion in economic value-add for Western Australia.
• Under current policy settings, industry-wide adoption of Battery Electric (BE) haul trucks is delayed to ~2035. Changes to policy settings could bring this forward by approximately 6 years.
• A $50 million annual cap on diesel Fuel Tax Credits would create $7.1 billion of value add for Western Australia, by unlocking $5.6 billion in additional investment by 2035. Investments would go toward electric haul trucks, renewables, storage, and charging. This is additional investment beyond Fortescue’s existing plans.
• Common User Transmission Infrastructure would create an additional $6.2 billion of value-add for WA. It would unlock $4.4 billion of investment and 12,200 man-years of employment in regional Australia.

See our report