Agreed. If the government was looking to end China's monopoly on...

Agreed. If the government was looking to end China's monopoly on rare earths, they would have four shovel/FID ready projects to pick from: ARU Nolans, ASM Dubbo, HAS Yangibana and NTU Browns Range. Of those four, only ARU and ASM are proposing to make a saleable product, whilst HAS and NTU are making hard rock concentrates which as has been seen with HAS offtake could end up going to China any way. Between ASM and ARU, looks like they made the better choice from an economic perspective IMO.

It's good to see Australia doing what is needed to break China's stranglehold on rare earths. There was probably some strategic discussions with the US on both this and the ILU funding packages, the US ultimately need the rare earths and they don't have any shovel ready projects as far as I can tell. Overall, this is great news for all Australian rare earths hopefuls as both sides of government are strongly supporting these projects.