Australia and the United States signed the United States-Australia Framework for Securing of Supply in the Mining and Processing of Critical Minerals and Rare Earths in Washington on 20 October.
The framework will deliver a US-Australia secured supply chain for critical minerals and rare earths. These resources are essential for defence and other advanced technologies.
US and Australia will also each provide at least $1 billion in investments towards an USD$8.5 billion pipeline of priority critical minerals projects over the next 6 months.
The first 2 priority projects for Australia are:
- Alcoa-Sojitz Gallium Recovery Project in Wagerup, Western Australia
- Arafura Nolans project in the Northern Territory.
As part of the framework, a US-Australia Critical Minerals Supply Security Response Group will identify priority minerals and supply vulnerabilities. The US Secretary of Energy and the Minister for Resources will develop a coordinated plan to accelerate delivery of processed minerals.
