Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and United States President Donald J. Trump signed a landmark bilateral framework on critical minerals and rare earths, which is expected to accelerate the pipeline of priority projects delivered by and for both nations.
“There are no closer friends and allies than the Unites States of American and Australia. President Trump and I agreed today we will work very hard together in both our nations’ interests,” Albanese said.
“We’ve agreed today Australia and America are going to make more things together with our historic framework on critical materials. Australia is home to much of the periodic table of critical minerals and rare earth metals that are vital for defence and other advanced technologies.”
The United States–Australia framework for securing of supply in the mining and processing of critical minerals and rare earths will enable secure supply chains for critical minerals to Australia and the United States, as well as rare earths which are required for defence tools.
In addition, both nations will undertake various procedures to provide a minimum of USD$1 billion in investments towards USD$8.5 billion in priority supply of critical minerals projects over the following six months.
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The first project is the Alcoa-Sojitz Gallium Recovery Project in Wagerup, Western Australia. Up to USD$200 million in concessional equity finance for the project that includes a right of offtake, with the Unites States Government also making an equity investment with a right of offtake.
This project will provide up to 10 per cent of total global gallium supply. Gallium is an essential input for defence and semiconductor manufacturing. This is a trilateral project with Japan, the United States and Australia, which will strengthen our collective economic security. Japan has already provided 50 per cent of the project costs to date.
The Arafura Nolans Project in the Northen Territory is the second project, which sees Australia declare a USD$200 million equity investment. Once begun, the operation will produce five per cent of global rare earths for security and defence.
“Cooperation on critical minerals and rare earth supply chains is testament to the trusted partnership between Australia and the United States as strategic defence allies,” Albanese said.
“I look forward to continuing to work with President Trump to strengthen our partnership and support American and Australian workers, businesses and investors.”