Madeleine King, Resources Minister, says Australia can topple China’s rare earth stanglehold

Australia still has time to create its own rare earths industry and topple China’s stranglehold over the sector, according to Resources Minister Madeleine King.

But she disputed US President Donald Trump’s claim that by 2027 Australia and the US would be producing so many of the critical minerals that they would be worth $US2, and declined to state a time when Australia’s industry would be competitive.

China and the US have been engaged in a trade war over rare earths for years, but this month, Beijing for the first time imposed export controls on the resources for all countries.

The move sent shockwaves through Western governments as the restrictions apply to the supply of critical metals that are used to make everyday technological products like mobile phones and laptops, as well as advanced weapons like fighter jets and the AUKUS submarines.

On Monday, US President Donald Trump signed a deal with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to jointly invest $1.5 billion each to unlock a $13 billion pipeline of mining projects in Australia and the United States that would extract and process the resources in-country.

But with China dominating between 70 to 90 per cent of the sector, depending on extraction and processing, there are doubts that the allies can catch up in time.

Ms King sat opposite Mr Trump and Mr Albanese across the table in the White House Cabinet room as the pair signed the agreement documents with Sharpie pens.

She said allied countries had reached a point in time where the urgency to establish a counter to China’s dominance had “gone through the roof.”

“China has banned the export of particular – all rare earths, really, but also the know-how and the industrial capacity know-how behind them,” she said.

“So, it has become more urgent for governments to get involved in this market. In an ideal world, it would be all left to private enterprise, right?

“So we’re here at the start of a whole new industry, and it’s an industry that is very hard to establish, given the market dominance of one player.

“And so it is the right time for the Australian government, combined with the US government, to turn the attention of its credit agencies to be able to make sure we can build this alternative supply chain.”

Asked if she believed it was still possible to catch up to China, Ms King said: “Yeah, I do.”

“I’m not a quitter,” she added.

“We stand at the cusp of an extraordinary opportunity, and I for one, am not gonna let that go. And we need to make it happen; the geostrategic challenges of our time mean we must make this happen.

“The choices for a government are you sit back, let the market rip, and you probably won’t be able to create an independent supply chain, and therefore the world is dependent on one source, and we know that’s dangerous for international trade.

“So we’re making a determined step to compete, and whilst absolutely China is ahead of the game on this, that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try and try in a very determined fashion, to make sure we get to lead globally on critical minerals and rare earths, and we will do that with our friends and allies in the US.”

“The best time was probably 10 or 20 years ago, absolutely. But that didn’t happen, and China invested in this industry well ahead of other nations.”

The minister did not define a timeframe in which Australia could catch up to China.

“The Middle East has oil and China has rare earths,” Deng Xiaoping is quoted as saying in 1992, just after China overtook the US in the sector.

On Monday, Mr Trump boasted that: “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, they’ll be worth about two dollars.”

But asked how soon the materials could be costing $US2, Ms King replied: “Yeah I don’t know about that.”

“The problem is that the price is too low. It needs to have a proper market to be able to function, a market that reflects the true cost of making this stuff because it’s complex, right?” she said.

“It’s really complicated chemical processing, as well as the mining. And that’s not reflected in the current price, and that’s why it’s so difficult to get this industry going.”

She defended the subsidies required to start the industry and said that returns would be made, but that they would take time and likened it to the initial investments made by the government to start Australia’s iron-ore mining sector, which now accounts for half of the world’s supply.

Ms King said the minerals deal agreed was not just in the interest of WA, which boasts considerable rare earths deposits.

“What does it mean for WA? Well, it means a lot for the whole nation, to be frank. There’s a lot of potential for critical minerals and rare earths deposits around the country, but WA has a super high percentage of these deposits,” she said.

“For us, it means and, by us, I mean WA, it means an excellent opportunity to really turbocharge the projects we’ve already got going and to move them along further and move them along further more quickly, but also to encourage more projects to come online because they become economic, when in the face of a challenging market, they are hard to be economic right now.”

The first two projects to be funded are both in Western Australia and include a Japanese-backed gallium mine operated by Alcoa and a rare earths mine and processing plant run by Arafura.

When it comes to gallium, China controls 99 per cent of the market.

Bill Oplinger, CEO of Alcoa, said he was looking forward to the miner being the first to market gallium outside of China with the rare earths produced from Wagerup.

“This project will serve approximately 10 per cent of the global market for gallium, and we’re uniquely positioned to be able to do that in Western Australia,” he said.

“Gallium is a critical mineral that is used for defence and semiconductors.

“So, it positions a product chain that will firmly go through Western Australia.”

Darryl Cuzzubbo, CEO of Arafura, said the agreement meant preferential treatment and a $100 million investment in the Nolans Project.

“This is truly important for attracting investors,” he said.

“From an Arafura perspective, we’re on the cusp of completing our financing, and this rapidly brings that to a close so we can rapidly move into building Australia’s first mine-to-ferrous-oxide project and then get on with phase two, which we see as become a processing hub, which we think will unlock the ferrous sector throughout Australia,” he said.

Asked why the government had not made more progress in kickstarting such projects in its first term, Ms King said she had been working on various incentive and financing schemes with the industry since day one in the job.

“I’m proud of our record, but it’s just hard work, man, and we’re just going to keep doing it until we do succeed, it’s that important.”

She said the deal could not have been clinched without the work done by Australia’s Ambassador to the US Kevin Rudd.

“No, we could not have, we could not have. He has worked day in, day out, night in, night out, actually,” she said.

“I’m in Perth right, so we’re 12 hours opposite, so we talk at all times of the day. I do wonder when he sleeps. And I’ve been up on the Hill today, and there’s not a person who doesn’t know him.

“He’s done a monstrous amount of work.”

After being reminded of Mr Rudd’s historical insults, Mr Trump dressed down the former prime minister during their otherwise hitch-free 40-minute press conference in the White House Cabinet Room on Monday.

But Mr Albanese said Mr Trump reprieved Mr Rudd and told him “all is forgiven” after the exchange. Mr Rudd, who has forged deep contacts across the Trump Administration, will continue in his role as Ambassador to the United States and will serve out a four-year term.

Mr Rudd was undeterred by the exchange and went on to host drinks and dinner for Mr Albanese with two of the cabinet ministers closest to Mr Trump — Secretary for State Marco Rubio and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent whose department will oversee work on the critical minerals agreement.