Australian critical minerals key to Trump’s goals, | Australian Markets

Australia is key to Donald Trump’s objectives of weaning the US off low cost Chinese critical minerals, Australia’s envoy in Washington says.

Critical minerals are simply that – minerals, corresponding to lithium, important for manufacturing superior applied sciences, from smartphones and automobiles to wind generators and defence systems.

Currently, China dominates the space, however Australia has emerged as a challenger, ruffling some feathers in Beijing.

Because of their significance to trendy tech, Western nations are more and more viewing critical minerals as a matter of national security and scrambling to bolster sovereign stockpiles and manufacturing.

In an interview in a single day, Australian Ambassador to the US Kevin Rudd mentioned that Xi Jinping’s “ideology” on China’s long-term financial development was “to ensure that the world is dependent on China while China is not dependent on the world”.

“And that in a nutshell is what we see across the whole breadth of industrial policy, from semiconductors through to critical minerals and rare earths,” the previous prime minister instructed the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

Boasting mineral reserves that “more or less equals the periodic table” and an superior mining sector, Mr Rudd mentioned Australia was well-placed to help break the dependence on China.

“Geology has been kind to us,” he mentioned, including that Australia is “an ancient continent”.

“We have the best mining companies in the world and the biggest mining companies in the world, some of whom have just been meeting with President Trump here in Washington, DC., as well as a whole depth of technical expertise represented in the research faculties of our major universities.

“So put together the geology … put together our processing capacity … and put together the depth and breadth of our mining expertise, I think we’re well-placed to assist in diversifying the supply chains, creating resilient supply chains, and helping the United States, under President Trump’s leadership, meet his requirements for a resilient America when it comes to critical minerals and rare earths.”

Australia’s emergence as a competitor within the sector has not gone down effectively in Beijing.

Despite the Chinese President’s heat phrases to Anthony Albanese in July about truthful and open trade, his authorities’s actions have made clear that extends to Australian lobsters moderately than Australian minerals.

Since 2022, Australia’s main producer Lynas Rare Earths has been subjected to a relentless Chinese disinformation marketing campaign focusing on its operations each within Australia and overseas.

It has not deterred efforts to grow Australia’s presence, pushed largely by the defence industry.

Mr Rudd mentioned critical minerals needs to be seen as “defence goods”, pointing to the tons used within the nuclear-powered submarines Australia is set to get beneath AUKUS.

He mentioned the American-made Virginia-class “contains within it something like 4.5 tons of critical minerals, rare earths, highly processed”.

“You go to an F-35, you’re looking at a high proportion of the actual aircraft itself being derivative of advanced process to rare earth,” he continued.

“So whether we like it or not, the reality is the sharpest edges of what we do in the military hang off the availability of critical minerals in rare earths supply, as well as processed critical minerals in rare earths, as well as critical … derivatives, such as magnets.

“So I think what President Trump is seeking to do … is trying to find how this now plays into a secure supply chain the United States.

“And as a US ally, we are ready and able to help, and we have the capacity to do so.”