In a week when PwC Australia released a report saying just seven of 124 investment-ready critical mineral projects have received the green light for funding in Australia in the past financial year, I talked to my friend, Michelle Wood, the CEO of Gippsland Critical Minerals.

Fitz: Hi Michelle, but enough chit-chat. Two months ago, we had brass bands and balloons because Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and President Donald Trump had done a deal whereby – I think – America would buy our “critical minerals”, and Australia would get squillions!

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and US President Donald Trump signed the critical minerals deal at the White House.Credit: Aresna Villanueva

MW: Yes, it was a great breakthrough. And all about recognising that China has become dominant in critical minerals and Australia and America both need to have a secure supply of them to make so much modern technology work.

Fitz: But this week, I read, PwC has come out with a report saying that while Australia has 124 investment-ready critical mineral projects – as the need has been so widely recognised for years now – only seven actually got started in the last financial year. As you are close to being on the list to carry my coffin in 30 years, I know I can trust you to give me the good oil, as I want to understand this issue. Are you ready to play?

MW: Indeed. It is complicated, difficult and slow to get new projects up and going in Australia. A lot of it plays back to this stuff that actually happened last month with the federal government passing the legislative reform on the EPBC . . .

Fitz: “EPBC”!? I actually thought we could start on a simpler level, like, “What are critical minerals?”

MW: [Laughing] OK, let’s do it like that. Governments came up with the term “critical minerals” to describe certain important materials – such as copper and nickel. And if you remember the periodic table at school, at the bottom are 17 little boxes, and they’re the “rare earth elements”, a subset of critical minerals.

Fitz: And what are they critical of? Those snooty elements at the top of the table, in shape to contest the Elementary Grand Final, who think they’re sooooo good?

MW: Maybe they are critical because it’s only........

© The Sydney Morning Herald