LTR (ASX) Lithium Related Media Articles

Apologies if this has already been posted. I've pasted below part of an ABC news article published today. I think it is worth reading especially the bit about cooperation needed by the west to counteract the Chinese near monopoly in the industry.

This is the link to the full article...

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-06-18/critical-minerals-takes-centre-stage-at-chinese-premier-wa-visit/103986642

regards
DF

We dig them out, China processes
Luckily, it's got a captive buyer in China, according to national president of the Australia-China Business Council, David Olsson.
"China's going through an economic process of decarbonisation of its own economy," he told the ABC's AM program.
"It's a major driver of much of its economic growth going forward, and the development of value chains and supply chains associated with the decarbonisation of the economy.
"Australia is blessed with large deposits of these critical minerals, which is essential to the green economy, so China will be looking to shore up its supply chains so that it gets as much access as it is able to."
That's where the tension lies for Australia which, on the one hand, stands to benefit significantly from building new trading relationships with China around these new minerals.
But given their importance to so much of our daily lives — not to mention military uses — national security considerations are quickly coming into play.
Foreign Minister Penny Wong alluded to that tension on the weekend, speaking about the government generally welcoming foreign investment.
"We have also said there will be areas where we'll pay particular attention to national interest considerations. Critical minerals is one of them," she told Insiders.
The concern is what the head of the Perth US-Asia Centre, Gordon Flake, is China's "extreme" monopoly over the processing of the minerals.
We can dig them out of the ground here in Australia, but being able to use them currently requires China's involvement.
"This is the basic economics 101, trying to avoid monopolies, and we're pretty close to a monopoly right now," Flake told AM.
"There isn't a call for the government to take over the industry, but to at least carve out a percentage of that supply chain so as to deny China the capability of monopoly behaviour.
"To ensure that at least for national security applications, for core communications applications, that we are not dependent on a single source, but that's a big, big lift."
It's why there was $7.1 billion for critical minerals in the latest federal budget, on top of other measures.
But money alone won't be enough, with China the home of much of the necessary expertise, which mining analyst Peter Strachan said means processing projects were taking longer-than-expected to get up to capacity.
"The problem in this area is that prices have been really controlled by the Chinese because they can push the price down and just make Australian developments uneconomical until such a time as they're sort of bleeding from every orifice," he told the ABC's AM program.
"And then they have to come to the Chinese to get support and get into the market."
'Very delicate dance'
Flake agreed, saying there was only one commercial-scale rare earths processing facility outside of China.
Chinese premier's visit comes at a crucial time
China wants to strengthen economic ties, while the Australian government is hoping Beijing will soon remove the last few remaining trade sanctions it has placed on Australian goods.
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Despite the theoretical power that enabled the country to wield, he believes lessons have been learnt from trying to exert power over Japan in similar circumstances.
"Because if they threaten that, we'll do the one thing they don't want which is encourage governments and other companies to invest in alternatives, and so it's a very delicate dance on their part," he said.
The solution, he believes, is for governments and the private sector to use every lever they have to get other processing plants off the ground — using offtake agreements and government investment.
WATCH
Duration: 2 minutes 44 seconds2m 44s

Three major highlights of Chinese Premier Li Qiang’s visit to Australia.
"And most importantly it's going to take international cooperation because this is not an issue Australia can solve," Flake said.
It's a high-stakes dance both the state and federal governments will need to work their way through over the months and years ahead.
Sticking with pandas might be easier, but the pay-offs are big if both sides take the right steps together.
Want more local WA news?
Select "Western Australia Top Stories" from either the ABC News homepage or the settings menu in the app.