NSW Premier Chris Minns has issued a clear message to the global resources sector at the International Mining and Resources Conference (IMARC): New South Wales is open for investment and ready to power the world’s clean energy transition.

Opening Australia’s largest mining conference in Sydney, the Premier acknowledged that the state’s planning system had created duplication and red tape that was holding back projects, but committed to improving this as part of his pitch to investors to back the State’s growing pipeline of critical minerals projects.

 “Not only do we have experienced companies, the trained workforce, the stable democracy, the rule of law, we've also got the critical minerals sitting there to make a big difference: 21 of 31 on the critical minerals list, four out of five on the strategic minerals list, significant deposits of rare earths,” Premier Minns said.

“New South Wales is absolutely open for business right now. We've got critical minerals and high-tech metal projects that are ready to go. They've completed their exploration and their planning approval, and they're waiting for investment to start production.

“If we can get that capital on board, these projects will bring billions of dollars to New South Wales and make a major difference to the global economy.”

Premier Minns highlighted existing problems with the planning system that “has been letting us down badly in New South Wales, and we've found that across the board, on residential housing, commercial construction, industrial development, but particularly for mining and resources.”

“It's been frustrating how often the system is looking for excuses to say no, rather than ways of saying yes….We don't want to be the Wild West like we've seen in some jurisdictions through history, but we need to be ruthless in getting rid of any duplication that's crept into the system. At the end of the day, there's a lot of capital on the line here, and we can't ask you to organise your finance, and then for it to sit in purgatory for years and years on end without a definitive answer and without these projects rolling.

“One of the reasons we were so keen to host IMARC this week is to make that pitch, almost a sales pitch, to all of you,” the Premier told delegates. 

IMARC has attracted a record number of attendees this year, bringing together more than 11,000 mining executives, operational staff, investors, government officials, diplomats and METS companies.

Premier Minns reflected that there was a misconception that mining was an industry of the past, “particularly amongst the next generation of young Australians”. But he said the truth was the opposite, noting the importance of minerals to smart phones, electric vehicles and renewables. 

“Without mining, it wouldn't be possible to live the kind of modern, prosperous, technologically advanced lives we rightly expect in the 21st Century…Without mining, we can't transition our energy system. We can't expand renewable power. We can't drive the economy of the future.”

Premier Minns said the mining industry remains the “lifeblood of regional towns” such as those in the Hunter Valley, and is key to the state’s long-term economic and environmental goals.

“We'd love to see more exploration, more productive minds, more capital coming into New South Wales to create more jobs, particularly in our regional communities. If we don’t seize these opportunities, someone else will,” he said.

“We want you to know that you can trust New South Wales, and we would humbly ask that it be on the top of your list when you're hunting for places to deploy that capital...There's no reason New South Wales can't power the next century exactly the same way as it powered the last.”