If you read nothing of the above link, at least read page 12 and...

If you read nothing of the above link, at least read page 12 and part of page 13...

AUKUS and critical minerals: Hedging Beijing’s pervasive, clever and coordinated statecraft
Key players
There’s no shortage of nations that talk a big game on critical minerals. That partly reflects valuable contributions
on offer from many nations. However, in truth, few nations are integral to secure critical mineral supply, and false
claims saturate the public and government spheres. The resulting ‘noise’ is exacerbated by corporations and
politicians seeking to appeal to misinformed investors or grow their political standing.
The value of existing and prospective critical-mineral operations is proven in nations such as Russia, the Democratic
Republic of the Congo (DRC), Brazil, Chile, South Africa, Canada (for some key forms of metals production) and the
US, but most other nations are insignificant players. In comparison, China and Australia are on a different level
entirely in terms of strategic importance.26
Currently, China dominates critical-mineral supply chains and has production lines that are secure from ‘mine to
battlefield’.27 Its enormous economic reserves28 of minerals such as rare earths and magnesium also support China’s
dominant position. Australia is the only nation able to challenge it, and often vastly exceed it, based on proven
mineral reserves (and with considerable specialist mineral expertise).
Although even modest mineral reserves can go far in meeting more immediate demand, apparent mining
‘powerhouses’ such as Canada have their resources resting deep below cold, hard-to-access and environmentally
fragile areas. Or as a CBC News fact check (which applies to most nations) notes:
Basic statistics offer something of a cold shower … global surveys suggest Canada holds a tiny percentage of
mineable worldwide reserves of critical minerals.29
Conversely, based on US Geological Survey data, economically demonstrated battery-mineral reserves show
that Australia (especially WA) exceeds all other nations—far above second-placed China (Figure 2). The US (13th)
and Canada (14th) are the next best positioned partners within the ‘inner sanctum’ of Western security.30 Battery
minerals are essential to more than just electric vehicles, green technology and electrical goods such as mobile
phones and laptops. They’re essential for defence manufacturing.
Figure 2: Key battery minerals, global reserves, by country (%)

Note: Graph derived from a 2018 assessment by Future Smart Strategies.
Source: Mineral Commodity Summaries, US Geological Survey, 2022.
The fundamentals 13
The US is blessed with enormous mineral and fuel resources, but few critical minerals, and the UK is generally
resource poor. It’s imperative that AUKUS supply chains are supported by Australian critical minerals and associated
scientific and operational expertise.
In 2021, WA alone had non-fuel mineral sales (US$120 billion) equivalent to the US (US$80 billion) and Canada
(US$41 billion) combined.31 The state’s production includes enormous volumes of many critical minerals. WA is
sometimes the major alternative to Chinese production, as is the case with aluminium and rare earths; sometimes
its production eclipses China’s, as with lithium minerals or iron ore (iron ore being a critical mineral for China);
sometimes it’s a sovereign secure source, as it is for titanium and tantalum—the latter of which is otherwise
available only from China or countries prone to geopolitical or economic risk.32
However, although Australia is seemingly a blessing for AUKUS and the global economy seeking large, ethically
mined, environmentally sustainable and secure critical-mineral supplies, the data on reserves and primary
production hides the fact that most output is dug up and then sold to China for processing. In that way, Australia and
other producing countries reinforce Chinese monopolies rather than helping to diversify supply. In fairness, those
producers at present have few markets other than China in which to sell their raw minerals.
Critical minerals are currently unusable without heavy, often nearly total, dependence on Chinese supply chains,
principally for processing the minerals into usable forms, and their subsequent components. Rare-earth minerals
are exemplars in this regard.