ASX Today, page-39549

"Australia has the world’s largest known deposits of gold, iron ore, lead, nickel, rutile, uranium, zinc and zircon. And it has significant reserves of many others, including copper and lithium.“The road through net zero runs through Australia’s resources sector,” Federal Minister for Resources Madeleine King declared while releasing a new critical minerals study earlier this month. “Australia’s resources are mined and processed to the highest standards – making them the cleanest and greenest in the world,” King added.Equally important, Australia is not a source of significant ESG (environmental, social and government) interruption.These are serious concerns for multinational corporations seeking to expand their critical minerals portfolios.But not for the UAE and Saudi Arabia. Nor China.Nor are they concerned about producing immediate returns for investors.“Saudi Arabia is not sensitive to short-term price signals,” says Baskaran. “So while global mining exploration and activity has contracted, Saudi Arabia has scaled up its overseas investments.”Riyadh is also mostly buying up substantial stakes in existing projects.“Saudi Arabia’s equity stake approach eliminates the burden of exploring, permitting, building, and operating a mine. Instead, it lets the kingdom go straight to securing supply,” Baskaran explains.The UAE is also actively buying up its stakehold.It has moved to secure access to copper through a $US 1.9 billion partnership with Congo. Similar talks with Zambia are advancing.More Coverage‘Gone’: China move could sink AustraliaCollapse leaves Australia on the brinkBut Australia’s not entirely being left out in the cold.Abu Dhabi is in talks with Canberra over a free-trade agreement that could open the door for the UAE to make commanding investments in Australia’s critical minerals sector.Jamie Seidel is a freelance" https://www.news.com.au/finance/business/mining/two-countries-come-for-australias-billions-from-critical-minerals/news-story/747de77929f19dc9aa93775155e3aa86#:~:text=Australia%20has%20the,is%20a%20freelance