With the election done, Australian mine owners are turning their attention to the trade war between the U.S. and China in which critical minerals are increasingly being used as a weapon. China largely controls the processing of minerals and is accused by the U.S. of withholding the end products. Australia mines many of the raw materials and could fill the gap but miners are having to walk a tightrope between China, our biggest export market, and the U.S., our closest military ally.
Category
📺
TVTranscript
00:00Australian miners operate all over the world, not just in Australia.
00:06So I spoke to a number of companies like RST Solutions.
00:09They do a lot of mine site management, environmental solutions.
00:12So they're doing work for the Chinese, particularly in Indonesia,
00:15in a big nickel mine over there, but in China itself.
00:18And they're also setting up with partnerships in the US.
00:21And you can see that too with Linus.
00:23That's a huge lithium operation in Western Australia.
00:26They sell directly to China, but of course lithium is...
00:29We're number one in the world for lithium.
00:31We're selling it all over the place.
00:32And America desperately wants lithium.
00:35So how do you deal with this opportunity to get into the US,
00:38because there's a blockade happening there now,
00:40but you're exporting most of your stuff to China?
00:43And how significant then are the opportunities in the US?
00:46Well, China embargoed the supply of critical minerals to the US.
00:50And that means that they've got huge problems now
00:53if they want to develop things like thermometers,
00:57semiconductors, LED screens, smartphones,
01:00Blu-ray technology.
01:01They need gallium for that.
01:03The Chinese were supplying 80%, 90% of gallium.
01:05They've stopped.
01:06They've also banned germanium,
01:09which is used in space technology.
01:11It's used in renewables, telecommunications.
01:13Antimony is used in bullets and other weapons.
01:16Graphite is used in electric vehicle batteries.
01:19All that has stopped.
01:20And so the US is really desperate now
01:23to find other supplies of all those critical minerals.
01:26And Australia potentially could be a good source.
01:29And what are mine is saying about Labor's reserve?
01:32Well, the reserve is very interesting
01:34because it does provide some protection.
01:36So what China has done to the US,
01:38they've also manipulated the market in some respects in Australia.
01:42Like, we were number one in lithium,
01:44but the Chinese flooded the market with their own lithium
01:46and brought the price down to a four-year low.
01:48That meant some mines had to be mothballed here.
01:50We were doing very well in nickel,
01:52but they flooded the market with nickel.
01:54And so there were 13 mines that had to be mothballed
01:57because of that kind of activity.
01:59So a reserve in Australia,
02:00which is something the government has promised,
02:02would enable the government to become like a final resort.
02:06You know, they could buy that kind of product from Australian miners
02:09who were facing that kind of manipulation,
02:11help them to get through a tricky period,
02:13maybe get the money back later on.
02:15I mean, the government has quite a comprehensive policy
02:17in support of critical minerals
02:19because there's massive potential for expansion in Australia.
02:22We have some of the world's best reserves
02:26when it comes to a whole range of things like copper, lithium, nickel, cobalt.
02:31We're fourth for rare earths, which is another weird thing
02:33we've only just been learning about in recent times
02:35and how important it is for different things.
02:37And we already export massive amounts of gold.
02:40That's one of our biggest exports to the US.
02:43So all these things are really critical.
02:45The opportunity to build our own capacity to expand production
02:50and get into the high-tech end is important.
02:52And overall, why is this so important, David?
02:54Well, the US is talking about...
02:56I spoke to Harvey Kaye from US Critical Minerals.
02:58He's another company that wants to collaborate with Australians.
03:01He says their import-export bank might want to invest in processing here
03:05so that we can not just send them the raw material,
03:08that we can process ourselves.
03:10It's also very important for jobs, like $450 billion.
03:14Two-thirds of our exports are mining.
03:17And critical minerals is now just, like, 2% of that.
03:20But that's still 50,000 jobs.
03:22You know, like, this is what underpins the Australian economy.
03:25And in the transition away from coal
03:28and away from iron ore potentially in a longer timeframe,
03:31critical minerals are it.
03:33And if we want to get into renewables
03:34and become a manufacturer of renewables,
03:37we need those minerals here in Australia as well.
03:39Well...
03:40That's key.
03:45Good luck.
03:46Sir.