Washington |The Biden administration is giving preference to...

Washington |The Biden administration is giving preference to critical minerals suppliesfrom trusted allies with high environmental and labour standards such asAustralia as part of a 100-day review into securing the world’s most importantsupply chains.

Juggling the twin challenge of guaranteeingnon-Chinese sources of rare earths and critical minerals against the need tomaintain standards, the US administration has opened the door wider toAustralian miners able to leverage their comparative advantage over companiesfrom countries such as Chile, the Congo and Myanmar.

Bags of concentrates sit for transport at MountainPass, California, the US’ only rare earths operation. The Biden administrationwants to diversify its source and processing markets away from China. Bloomberg

The 100-day review into critical minerals also calls for tougher environmental standards in US mining production, while acknowledging the need to build up processing and refining capacity and diversify away from “adversarial” suppliers such as China.

The push to make the mining standards even tougherfollows President Joe Biden’s movesthis year to suspend new oil and gas drilling on government land and cancel the Keystone XL pipeline, reversing the agenda of former president Donald Trump.

President Biden plans to convene a global forum onsupply chain resilience that will bring together key government officials andprivate sector stakeholders from across key US allies and partners tocollectively assess vulnerabilities, develop common approaches to supply chainchallenges, and work to build strength through diversity and shared prosperity.

“The US should expand multilateral diplomaticengagement on supply chain vulnerabilities, particularly through groupings oflike-minded allies such as the Quad and the G7,” the report says.

“We must work with allies and partners to securesupplies of critical goods that we will not make in sufficient quantities athome.”

His administration’s stance could be good news forAustralian miners producing some of the metals, and non-metal minerals know asrare earths, needed for electrical vehicles, solar panels, wind turbines,defence equipment and consumer electronics.

It also comes as Prime Minister Scott Morrison, onthe eve of his departure to this weekend’s G7 meetings in the UK, saidAustralia had a “responsibility” to expand its endowment of critical minerals,which are essential for military and high-tech technologies.

“I look forward to discussions on broader supplychain issues as they relate to our economic, health and social resilience,” MrMorrison told an audience in Perth on Wednesday.

Mr Morrison will use the G7 gathering in Cornwallto promote a supplier of critical medical equipment, PPE and vaccines as anexample of alliance cooperation. “Importantly, sovereign capability does notmean we must produce everything we consume. No economy can or should beself-sufficient in all products and services,” he said.

The Biden administration review envisages aninter-agency team from the Department of the Interior, Department ofAgriculture, and the Environmental Protection Agency as well as “others withexpertise in mine permitting and environmental law”.

“This team will identify gaps in statutes andregulations that may need to be updated by Congress to ensure new productionmeets strong standards before mining begins, during the mining process, andafter mining ends,” the report says.

Such outdated laws, the review said, included theGeneral Mining Law of 1872 governing mining claims on federal lands and theMineral Land Leasing Act of 1920 which covers the development of minerals.

At the same time, the review acknowledged thedesperate need for more of these processed minerals to be sourced “away fromadversarial nations and sources”.

“The United States must secure reliable andsustainable supplies of critical minerals and metals to ensure resilienceacross US manufacturing and defence needs,” it says.

It said that even if it did diversify, it wouldstill need China to process and refine minerals.

“Even if the United States were to diversify oursources of critical minerals or increase domestic extraction, we would still bereliant on China for processing before use in end-product manufacturing.”

The review noted that the global lithium batterymarket was expected to grow by a factor of five to 10 by 2030 and that it wasimperative the US “invest immediately in scaling up a secure, diversifiedsupply chain for high-capacity batteries”.

“That means seizing a critical opportunity toincrease . . . sourcing and processing of the critical minerals used in batteryproduction.”

One of the key lithium mines already facing abattle on environmental issues is Australian-owned Ioneer’s Rhyolite Ridge lithium-boronproject in Nevada.

However, Ioneer chief executive Bernard Rowe saidhe was confident the Biden review would not affect his project.

“The report released after the conclusion of a100-day review of domestic supply chains indicates that the administration hasfull support for responsible domestic mining projects like Rhyolite Ridge,” MrRowe said.

He also backed the move by the Biden administrationto include all government agencies in the team that decides on what legislationis outdated.

“We appreciate the Biden administration for takinga whole of government approach and aggressively moving forward to address theclear need to bolster critical mineral production in the United States. Thesteps outlined today show a commitment and willingness to address this urgentneed head on.”