With all the bickering going on here recently, there has been little reaction to the AFR article that I posted. This is brewing away nicely in the background for Anson's Australian minerals and, as mentioned many times before, who knows what Bruce has up his sleeve for these projects. Here are some of the important points from the story..............
National governments would become more interventionist in funnelling investment into priority resources projects under the planned creation of a collective marketplace of major industrialised nations, including Australia, to mine, process and consume critical minerals. As Resources Minister Madeleine King warns that foreign partners need to “lean in” to help develop Australian projects, the high-level talks seek to break China’s stranglehold on materials crucial to 21st-century technology, including military equipment.
They are being framed around economic and national security, in recognition of an unhealthy dependency on China, which is positioned as both a major supplier and buyer of critical minerals. China’s distortions of global nickel and lithium markets have been a wake-up call and built momentum for a sweeping agreement, according to government sources familiar with negotiations.
Australia and Canada are involved in the talks as major producers of critical minerals...............
Officials feared premature disclosure of the talks would give China an opportunity to disrupt the creation of the network, but US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan told The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age that he hoped to finalise arrangementsbefore President Joe Biden’s term ended in January.
“Securing these supply chains is imperative not only for our future economic diversity and sovereign capacity but also for our security and that of the region,” she will say, according to speech notes. “Developing our critical minerals sector is not a ‘nice to have’ to augment iron ore, coal and gold mining. It’s a strategic imperative.”
..............if successful the talks are expected to lead to much greater co-ordination and a faster start-up for projects, including identification of key minerals andprioritising projects to meet this demand. This could lead to government-owned banks and finance agencies becoming more active in lending money to get projects off the ground, in addition to incentives and subsidies that governments offer, such as Australia’s production tax credits, that are meant to spur investment.
“Normal market forces won’t resolve this” Mr Coyne said. “What miners need is not necessarily tax breaks or subsidies. What they need is a way to raise capital"..............
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