US backs Australian lithium, rare earths projects for up to $786...

US backs Australian lithium, rare earths projects for up to $786 million

The United States has backed an Australian lithium and a rare earths project with up to $786 million in debt funding as Western countries seek to build supply chains for critical minerals.

Australia’s American Rare Earths said on Tuesday it had received a letter of interest for a debt funding package of up to $456 million from the Export-Import Bank of the United States (EXIM) to support construction of the Cowboy State Mine area at its Halleck Creek project in Wyoming.

“We are hopeful that it will serve as an anchor to help attract private funding into the project,” said Melissa Sanderson, a member of the company’s board of directors.

The bank has also offered $330 million to finance the construction of Anson Resources’ lithium production plant in the Paradox Basin, Utah, the Australian company said on Tuesday.

Earlier this year, the bank backed two Australia-listed listed rare earths projects by Australian Strategic Materials and Meteoric Resources with up to $850 million of funding.

The United States and Australia established a critical minerals taskforce last year as Australia seeks to attract investment in minerals processing from allied countries, aiming to reduce reliance on China, which currently controls more than 80% of the global supply.

mining.com

US-led group weighs funding more mineral projects to counter China dominance

A US-led coalition of countries is looking at funding more minerals projects using a financing network aimed at combating China’s dominance of metal supply chains.

The Minerals Security Partnership has already announced support for 13 projects since the collaboration began in 2022 and it’s looking to streamline efforts to turn more into reality, Jose Fernandez, a top US State Department official, told Bloomberg.

He said development finance and export credit agencies from 14 mostly western nations and the European Union will work with private industry to fund the additional 32 projects amid a downturn in prices for key metals.

“If we can get half of those done in another year and a half, it’ll be great,” said Fernandez, who is under secretary of state for economic growth, energy and the environment.

The partnership was created to counter Chinese control of mineral supplies deemed essential for technology and clean energy applications. China controls much of the world’s processing of critical minerals used in a range of goods including electric vehicles and wind turbines to missile guidance systems.

One of the drivers behind the latest move is a desire to speed up approvals, according to Fernandez.

“Companies are telling us they’re losing out on tenders — they’re losing out on projects because they complain about the paperwork,” he said. “We need to supercharge this effort because we’re running against the time crunch.”

Quicker seed financing was needed to combat Chinese companies that have flooded the market with minerals such as lithium and cobalt and caused prices to fall despite rising demand, Fernandez said.

He said the low prices benefit manufacturers of batteries and hi-tech equipment in the short term, but discourage development of new sources of the minerals.

“In the long term, we’ve created an over-dependence on oversupply that, as we’ve learned in history, will come back to bite you,” he said.

Finance and credit institutions from the group, which includes the International Development Finance Corp. and the US Export-Import Bank, will streamline the process for approving projects while countries will also coordinate to avoid duplication of work and targeting the same projects.

“We shouldn’t all be chasing the same dog,” he said.

mining.com

Food for thought

Cheers

Frank