Will ILU metallise its REE concentrate?, page-8

US-AUS defence interests going off like 'so many frogs in a sock' in today's AFR:

Some of Australia’s biggest lithium mines could be ineligible for US government subsidies after Washington issued rules excluding critical minerals with high levels of Chinese ownership or processing.

The US Department of Energy issued draft guidance on Saturday that defined a ‘‘foreign entity of concern’’ as any company more than 25 per cent owned by Chinese, North Korean, Iranian or Russian shareholders.

Such foreign entities will be excluded from billions of dollars of subsidies offered under US President Joe Biden’s two major green innovation reforms: the $US369 billion ($553 billion) Inflation Reduction Act and the $US550 billion Infrastructure and Jobs Act.

Australian miners had expected to be big winners out of Mr Biden’s green agenda, which has incentivised US battery and car makers to source minerals such as lithium, nickel and cobalt from nations like Australia that have free-trade agreements with the US.

But China’s role as the dominant customer and original investor in the Australian lithium sector will prevent many miners from accessing the subsidies, while rewarding players such as Wesfarmers and Liontown Resources that have built non-Chinese lithium businesses in WA.

Google the story for much more in the same vein.

What applies to Li, applies in spades to REE, as can be seen from my above posts.

Viability of ILU's refinery is dependent on the highest-grade ore sources at Wolverine, just as ILU is entirely dependent on practical financial support from the AUS government to build the refinery. So IMHO, NTU is levered on a lever - provided Chinese interests in NTU are contained to portfolio-only levels.

Government support is visible in the 50% government funding of resource definition drilling at Wolverine. Invisible to us retail holders are negotiations by NTU/ILU, separately and together, around the nature and scale of support from Western governments in NTU's imminent DFS and FID.

We holders would like our equity interests to be undiluted and free-carried through development.

This is entirely possible.

Ash