US President Donald Trump signed an agreement with visiting Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to boost access to critical minerals and rare earths as the US looks to reduce reliance on Chinese supply chains.
“We are discussing critical minerals and rare earths and we’re going to be signing an agreement that’s been negotiated over a period of four or five months,” Trump said at the White House on Monday as the two leaders met. “In about a year from now, we’ll have so much critical mineral and rare earths that you won’t know what to do with them.”
Albanese said the deal represented an $8.5 billion “pipeline that we have ready to go.” He hailed the agreement on minerals and rare earths as “taking it to the next level,” praising the economic and defense cooperation between the two countries.
The sitdown, Albanese’s first White House visit since Trump retook power, comes as the Australian PM looks to shore up ties with the US, using his nation’s wealth in critical minerals as leverage. China’s move to impose unprecedented export restrictions on rare earths has rattled economies across the globe, with US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent saying last week that allies — including Australia — are in talks about a united response.
Australia, which holds the world’s fourth-largest deposits of rare earths, has sough to position itself as a viable alternative to China for supplies crucial for industries covering semiconductors, defense technology, renewable energy and other sectors. The country is also the base of the only producer of so-called heavy rare earths outside China through Lynas Rare Earths Ltd.
Efforts to secure a deal were underway well ahead of Albanese’s visit. More than a dozen Australian mining firms held meetings last month in Washington with officials from various agencies and were told the US was looking for ways to obtain equity-like stakes in companies, according to people familiar with the talks, part of a broader American strategy to develop supply chains to compete with China.
Australian Treasurer Jim Chalmers met with US investors from firms including Blackstone Inc. and Blue Owl Capital in New York last week to pitch his country as a stable, resource-rich destination for global capital and a key partner in efforts to diversify critical supply chains.
Source: www.mining.com
Aleksei Andrievskii is the founder of the ANDRIEVSKII SEA WEALTH family office in Cyprus, a member of the advisory board at Bendura Bank AG, Liechtenstein