Australia is pitching itself as a solution to the U.S. critical metal problems. The West has struggled to break China’s grip on the 50-odd “critical minerals” that are vital for electronics, renewables, defense systems, and more. However, Monday’s meeting between Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and President Donald Trump might bring the two nations closer to bridging this commodities gap.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent warned that China’s export restrictions signal “China versus the world,” according to the Financial Times. Bessent told Bloomberg that U.S. officials are in discussions with European allies, Australia, Canada, India, and other Asian democracies to coordinate a response.
From Australia’s side the pitch is clear. The country offers massive deposits of lithium, rare earths and other strategic elements, coupled with a globally competitive mining sector and mining-engineering expertise.
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“Australia equals the periodic table. Having it is one thing -- knowing how to mine it … is another -- and we have the world’s biggest and best miners,” Australia’s Ambassador to the U.S., Kevin Rudd, said per Bloomberg.
Rudd noted that the U.S. currently has a deficiency in many of the 50 designated critical minerals. With proper investment and offtake agreements, Australia “can meet 30 to 40 of those without much additional effort, most particularly in terms of processed rare earths.”
According to The Guardian, Australia is offering the U.S. access to a proposed 1.2 billion Australian dollars ($780 million) critical minerals reserve as a signaling mechanism of trusted supply. Terms of such a deal are still uncertain, but even equity stakes are not out of the question. The U.S. government is increasingly willing to take equity stakes in strategic supply-chain companies. State-capitalism has re-entered mining sector, and Washington is not just a buyer -- it may become a co-owner and strategic partner.
Yet, Australia has its conditions. It needs U.S. investment, technology transfer, downstream refining capacity, offtake guarantees and security assurances--especially under the broader security umbrella of the AUKUS pact. Australia also wants to ensure that its resource diplomacy does not force it into a direct confrontation with China, its largest trading partner.
These risks are exactly what former Prime Minister Paul Keating warned nearly four decades ago. The danger of Australia relying on digging rocks and letting advanced manufacturing slip away.
“We took the view in the 1970s – it’s the old cargo-cult mentality, ‘we’ll just dig up another mound of rock and someone will buy it from us. If Australia is so undisciplined that it doesn’t deal with these fundamental problems … Then you are gone. You are a banana republic,” he said.
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