“Critical minerals are almost the new oil of this age and oil...

“Critical minerals are almost the new oil of this age and oil has been at the center of conflicts over the last 100-plus years,” said Trench, a mineral economist, geophysicist and business management consultant. “We want to avoid a monopoly and conflict developing over critical minerals over the next couple of decades.”

While the Australian government says it welcomes all interest from foreign investors, in practice there appears to be no appetite to greenlight Chinese requests, irritating Beijing. Earlier this month, Treasurer Jim Chalmers ordered a China-linked investor to divest its stake in a rare earths miner.