During a visit by Australian PM Anthony Albanese to Washington, the U.S. and Australia signed a deal designed to shore up critical minerals mining in both countries. Each country has committed to setting a minimum price floor for certain critical minerals, to deregulate and streamline permitting for mining operations, and to invest $1 billion each over the next six months in critical minerals mining and processing.
China is counting on leveraging its dominance in the rare earth minerals sector to come out on top in its on-again, off-again trade war with the United States. As Mary Gallagher wrote in WPR in June, if the U.S. wants to reduce China’s advantage in the industry, it must do more than just expand domestic mining and processing. “Industrial policy, state support and subsidies will be needed,” Gallagher wrote, and the Trump administration’s “broad reversal of policies instituted by former President Joe Biden that sought to supercharge investments into clean energy technology and products made in the United States” won’t help.
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