Australian miners eye US support as China tightens grip on rare earths

Australian miners hope China tightening its grip on rare earth supply chains will help incentivize US President Donald Trump to commit his agencies to fund their critical minerals projects at his upcoming meeting with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.

The US government flagged taking equity in Australian projects and companies in talks at the Australian Embassy in Washington in September. The industry also views the A$1.2 billion critical minerals strategic reserve Albanese pledged in 2024 as a potential bargaining chip for better trade deals.

Australian rare earth companies that were part of the Washington delegation told Platts, part of S&P Global Energy, that investor interest has spiked again since China mandated foreign organizations and individuals on Oct. 9 to obtain Chinese export licenses before re-exporting items manufactured abroad that incorporate Chinese rare earth materials or related technology. Trump responded by floating a 100% tariff on products from China.

Campbell Jones -- CEO of privately-held RZ Resources Ltd., which was among the Washington delegation -- expects the leaders to "walk away with a commitment that Australia can be a key resource for American key materials" and "to make that a reality in the short-term."

"This trade war and tariffs are really putting pressure on US departments to find solutions quicker on how America can be truly independent, particularly for defense [raw materials]," Jones told Platts.

"With the looming meeting between our leaders on Oct. 20, I expect to see stronger collaboration between [Australia and the US] over critical minerals to eventuate," Hastings Technology Metals Ltd. CEO Vince Catania, who was also at the September meeting in Washington, told Platts.

"There is an opportunity for the US government to provide equity as well as low-interest loans. It was quite clear [in Washington] that the US wants to be able to secure their rare earths in particular, and critical minerals in general, from their allied partners, Australia being number one."

Albanese told Australia's Channel 7 on Oct. 11 regarding his upcoming meeting with Trump that Australia has an "important defense and security relationship, economic relationship and partnership" with the US, and "there's much that we can do together in the area of critical minerals and all of these issues."

The Prime Minister's office declined to comment on the matter when reached out by Platts on Oct. 14.

Critical minerals opportunities

Australia is the top producer of lithium, rutile and bauxite, and among the top five for zircon, cobalt, manganese, tantalum, rare earths and zinc, according to the Australian Trade and Investment Commission (Austrade), which led the September delegation to Washington.

Australia hosts 43 of the 55 minerals critical to the US and holds 680 deposits aligned with the US Critical Minerals list, with 90% open for US investment, according to Austrade.

RZ Resources secured a facility with the Export-Import Bank of the US in September, which Jones said qualifies it as an approved borrower under the agency's Engineering Multiplier Program to help finance its Copi heavy mineral sands project in New South Wales, Australia. Copi will produce monazite and xenotime to feed the light and heavy rare earth markets, the CEO said.

This qualification "will enable us to quantify in our final bankable study what will be the US content and our US revenue, and based on that they'll then lend us money for the project," Jones told Platts.

Luca Giacovazzi, the CEO of private Australian company Wyloo Pty. Ltd., which operates an unincorporated joint venture on the Yangibana rare earths and niobium project in Western Australia with Hastings, said lessons can be learned from China's work in establishing its rare earths industry over decades.

"We take a long-term view of the rare earth market and see huge demand growth ahead fueled by the global transition to green energy and emerging technologies like electric vehicle batteries, wind turbines, advanced medical equipment and [artificial intelligence]," Giacovazzi told Platts in an Oct. 14 email.

"We believe that, ultimately, supply chains will develop around the world to keep pace with technological innovation and the global shift towards green energy."

End-to-end solutions

The Yangibana joint venture's plans to complete the mine, provide a concentrate and develop a mixed rare earth carbonate through a hydrometallurgy plant, all "opens the door to many opportunities for selling that product" to the both the US and Europe, which are seeking to diversify technology supply chains, Catania said.

Adam Myers, a deal advisory partner for BDO, said Australia would "certainly be seen as favorable" for financing critical minerals projects by the US, which is "looking for stable jurisdictions where they can secure that source."

However, merely securing the actual resource in the ground is not enough. They would prefer if companies can "turn it into the end product that is required," Myers told Platts.

"If you can show you've got an effective processing solution then you would certainly be more attractive for investment," Myers said, particularly given "unlocking an efficient processing solution is tricky, and then dealing with the waste product [from rare earths] is problematic."