US President Donald Trump and Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese signed a rare earths and critical minerals agreement yesterday aimed at ensuring a steady supply of the materials as China tries to tighten control over global supply.
China loomed large at the first White House summit between Trump and Albanese, with the US president backing a strategic nuclear-powered submarine deal with Australia aimed at countering Beijing’s ambitions in the Indo-Pacific.
The two leaders opened their talks in the Cabinet Room by announcing they would sign a rare earths deal that Trump said had been negotiated in recent months. Albanese described it as an $8.5 billion pipeline ‘that we have ready to go’.
A copy of the agreement, provided by the prime minister’s office, said the two countries will each invest $1bn over the next six months into mining and processing projects, as well as set a minimum price floor for critical minerals, a move that Western miners have long sought.
“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,” Trump told reporters.
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