Almost eight years to the day after the last Holden rolled off an Adelaide factory assembly line, Anthony Albanese announced a $13bn deal with Donald Trump to help champion a domestic rare-earth industry. Announcing the deal this week in Washington, the prime minister called it “a really significant day” that would take the relationship between the two countries “to the next level”. “We’re just getting started,” Albanese said. The US president claimed “in about a year from now, we’ll have so much critical mineral and rare earths, that you won’t…
Tag: Mining
In the depths of the ocean, a new contest between the US and China emerges
Deep below the surface of the Pacific Ocean, the seafloor is dotted with clusters of brown and black rocks, each containing valuable metals. The rocks, known as polymetallic nodules, hold reserves of critical minerals that could be used to power clean energy and fuel a new industrial future. In the Cook Islands, a nation halfway between Hawaii and New Zealand, exploration vessels are mapping the mineral-rich seabeds. Here, the US and China are both exploring the resource potential – setting up a new strategic battle between the world’s two most…
Albanese’s critical minerals deal isn’t good economics – but in Trump and Xi’s new world, bargaining chips matter
Anthony Albanese has struck a multi-billion dollar deal with Donald Trump to develop critical minerals projects in Australia that will never be commercially viable. When it’s laid out like that, it very much sounds like our prime minister fell victim to the president’s “art of the deal”. But we are in a new world where the national value of our critical minerals extends beyond economics, experts say. “This is a really significant deal, and I’m surprised how good it is,” says Hayley Channer, the director of the economic security program…
Australia and the US have signed a critical minerals deal to take on China’s monopoly. Here’s what you need to know
1. Albanese named two ‘priority projects’ in Australia The Australian prime minister specifically referred to two “priority projects”, one by Alcoa and the other by Arufura Rare Earths, that will get an injection of capital from the government as part of a broader list. The first is a proposed gallium plant in Western Australia, to be co-located at one of Alcoa’s alumina refineries. Gallium is a strategic mineral vital for modern technologies like military equipment – including in advanced electronic warfare systems such as missile guidance technology and radar. The…
What could a Trump deal on critical minerals mean for Australia – and could MAGA be a sticking point?
Australia’s rich deposits of minerals used for green energy technologies and military hardware are increasingly prized, especially because of rising anxiety about China’s stranglehold on the global supply chain. That anxiety escalated after Beijing imposed new restrictions on rare earths exports, prompting a furious rebuke from Donald Trump and a warning from his treasury secretary that western allies would need to “decouple” from China if it proved an unreliable supplier. The timing of the latest US-China trade conflict could be good for Anthony Albanese, who will arrive at next week’s…
What are rare earths and critical minerals – explained in 30 seconds
Critical minerals are vital for the global economy and include nickel, manganese and cobalt. Rare earths are a specific, highly useful category of critical minerals that are used to make magnets essential for the auto, electronic and defence industries, as well as in renewable energy. Securing reserves and production of rare earths has become a flashpoint in global diplomacy and trade. Rare earths are a group of 17 heavy metals that are abundant throughout the Earth’s crust. The United States Geological Survey estimated in 2024 there were 110m tonnes of…
US may take strategic stakes in rare earths companies to tackle China ‘power grab’
The Trump administration has criticised China’s increased restrictions on rare earth exports as a threat to global supply chains, and said it would seek to tighten control over strategic sectors by taking more stakes in key companies to counter Beijing. Treasury secretary Scott Bessent told an event on Wednesday that China’s dramatic new restrictions on rare earth minerals and magnets demonstrated the need for the US to be self-sufficient in critical materials or rely more on trusted allies. He later characterised Beijing’s rare earth export curbs as “China versus the…
China steps up control of rare-earth exports citing ‘national security’ concerns
China has increased restrictions on exports of rare earths and related technologies as Beijing tightened its grip on the products that are critical for use in smartphones and fighter jets. China’s commerce ministry announced the restrictions on Thursday, arguing damage had been caused to its “national security” from exports of the technologies – both directly or indirectly – to foreign military. The restrictions require government permission for the export of technology used to mine, process or recycle rare-earth minerals or make magnets from it, which could have dual use. The…
China’s reported BHP iron ore ban has wide-ranging ramifications. Here’s what to know
China, via a state-run enterprise, has reportedly banned its steel manufacturers from buying iron ore from Australian mining giant BHP, amid a strategic bid by Beijing to reduce prices of the crucial steel-making commodity. While it is a commercial dispute, the fight has wide-ranging political ramifications, given the threat to Australia’s biggest export, valued at more than $100bn a year, and the possibility Canberra is drawn deeper into the fight. Even if the impasse is resolved promptly, it could prove to be a foreshock that warns of an economic earthquake…
Albanese hopes China’s reported BHP iron ore ban ‘very much short-term’ as ASX dips
The treasurer, Jim Chalmers, will meet with the boss of BHP amid a shock report that the world’s largest mining company faces a Chinese blockade on its iron ore shipments. Beijing’s state iron ore buyer has told steelmakers to pause imports of BHP ore, amid hardball negotiations over the price of the crucial resource, Bloomberg reported on Tuesday. Chalmers said the reports were “concerning” but ultimately a matter for the company to work through. “I’ll have discussions with [BHP chief executive] Mike Henry about that in due course, when we…