Madeleine King: WA at the rare earth forefront to help solve international problems

WA’s resources industries are again front and centre of global attention, and for all the right reasons.

From Tokyo to the White House, and now Canada’s G7 meeting of the world’s most advanced economies, everybody is talking about Australia’s resources and the contribution of WA to help solve international problems.

Now the focus is on critical minerals and rare earths elements.

The US-Australia Framework, signed by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and President Donald Trump in the White House on October 20 represents a landmark moment for our critical minerals sector.

It will provide immediate and direct investment into Australia’s critical minerals sector and opens the way for further investment into a pipeline of Australian projects valued at about $13 billion.

The first project to benefit is the Alcoa-Sojitz Gallium Project in Wagerup backed by the Australian, US and Japanese governments.

The project will meaningfully diversify global gallium supply chains. Gallium is a critical metal used in high-tech devices such as radar, lasers, and 5G chips, making it vital for modern defence and communication.

The G7 is also responding to the urgency to develop alternative supply chains of critical minerals and rare earths.

Australia is not a member of the G7. But the invitation to attend the G7 meetings was recognition of Australia’s leadership in efforts to open up new supply chains and help make global markets more transparent, and because of our commitment to net zero by 2050.

Prime Minister Albanese and our Government are working with partners around the world to lead efforts across the G7, the G20 and bilaterally to diversify global supply chains.

The outcome of the G7 meetings is a clear endorsement of Australia’s approach.

The G7 ministers supported stronger international action to secure sustainable, resilient and transparent critical minerals supply chains which are essential for industries producing clean energy technologies that we all need to achieve net zero by 2050.

They are also crucial inputs into electronic and medical devices and modern defence technology.

G7 ministers also endorsed more co-operation to build standards-based markets for critical minerals and rare earths. Again, Australia has championed this initiative.

Our geology is a gift of nature. But it is clear we have much more to offer than just the right minerals beneath our feet.

The world is also looking at our high safety standards, our environmental stewardship, our respect for communities and First Nations peoples, our skilled workforce, our long-established supply chains and reliability as a resources and energy exporter, and our political and economic stability.

And we are a nation that welcomes foreign investment.

At the G7 ministers’ meeting, I emphasised how Australia is and will remain a reliable, stable and trusted supplier of energy to the world.

Australia is proud that our LNG provides energy security to the region and powers the great cities of Asia, in particular in Japan and the Republic of Korea.

Gas has an important role to play in supporting and firming renewable energy, but also to provide the high heat energy source that is needed to power critical minerals and rare earths processing.

The achievements of recent weeks are the result of steady, patient and consistent work over many years.

Since 2022, the Albanese Government has provided more than $28b in support to our critical minerals sector — the largest investment in our resources sector in this nation’s history — including a $17b Critical Minerals Production Tax Incentive to drive onshore processing.

We are currently working on the design and details of our promised $1.2b critical minerals strategic reserve, which I anticipate will be up and running by late next year.

In Canada, I joined Canada’s Minister for Resources and Energy Tim Hodgson to sign a joint declaration of intent on critical minerals co-operation. The agreement could lead to investment in our respective critical minerals strategic reserves.

More work needs to be done to diversify global critical minerals supply chains.

We Australians are up for this challenge. And these measures, with the support of our trade partners and allies, means Australia will be able to deal with future market disruption from a position of strength.

And WA will be at the centre of that work.

Madeleine King is the Minister for Resources and Northern Australia