The below is part of an article in the Fin Review today. The 4 countries of the Quad are going to look at rare earth.... even LTR is mentioned. Seems we are in a perfect storm and the timing of DFS and subsequent funding brilliant.!
Minerals agreement
Mr Morrison, alongside Japan’s Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga, India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Unites States President Joe Biden, will meet for their first in-person Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (Quad) where they will formally agree to mapping out supply chains for key products and critical minerals, as well as draw up new regulations that will see projects fast-tracked and greater offtake agreement certainty.
About 50 per cent of the world’s lithium comes from Australia. Lithium is a key component of battery power and lithium metal is used for special military applications.
However about 90 per cent of Australia’s production is sent to China for refinement and many of the projects in Australia are financed by Chinese investors.
Dozens of critical minerals projects in Australia that are not yet approved or financed could benefit from approval processes being fast-tracked or government subsidies and incentives established by the Quad’s agreement.
In the US, the government has $US30 billion ($41 billion) on offer in its cheap loan program designed to ensure projects to produce and refine critical minerals get off the ground.
In Australia there are multiple projects, such as the
Wesfarmers and SQM owned Covalent Lithium, which owns the Mount Holland lithium project in Western Australia.
Others include the Lion Town Resources project in the Kathleen Valley in Western Australia, Core Lithium’s Northern Territory project and Pilbara Minerals, which is looking to expand in Western Australia.
Some of these projects have Chinese funding and it is understood that the new Quad agreement will seek to expand offtake agreements to make them more attractive for investors in India, Japan and the United States.
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There are dozens of examples of critical mineral projects that could benefit from governments using “national interest” to expedite approvals and smooth supply chains.
Australian group Lynas, which is the world’s second-largest producer of rare earths minerals, was last year chosen by the Pentagon to develop initial engineering and design plans for a US processing plant. Australia and India have significant untapped critical minerals resources, but need to lock in more customers outside China to make it viable.
The Prime Minister has been pushing for more than two years the need to drastically improve the supply chain regulations for critical minerals. The latest AUKUS military intelligence sharing agreement has triggered a faster building of trust around the supply chains.
The Quad agreement will also accelerate analysis on the greatest vulnerabilities in terms of technology that countries rely on, and expand co-operation between the nations into space research and technology.
All four countries have skin in the game in this arena, and are natural partners to have their agencies more closely collaborate.
(20min delay)