“As a US ally, we are ready and able to help, and we have the capacity to do so,” he told the Centre for Strategic and International Studies, a bipartisan think tank, on Wednesday (Thursday AEST).
Rudd highlighted significant government expenditure on mining and processing of critical minerals, including $17 billion worth of tax incentives for companies, the $3.4 billion Geoscience Australia initiative to locate and develop rare earths, and a $1.65 billion loan to Iluka Resources to build a lithium processing facility in Western Australia.
Australia has 36 of the 50 critical minerals identified by the US as a priority.Credit: Bloomberg
There was also significant funding through the Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility to aid development of new projects in Australia’s high north (WA, the Northern Territory and north Queensland), Rudd said.
“Are [we] putting cash on the table? Yes,” he said. Asked whether, in the context of US pressure for Australia to spend significantly more on defence, critical minerals should be considered defence goods, Rudd said yes.
“The facts speak for themselves,” he said, pointing to the nuclear-powered Virginia-class submarine, of which Australia would purchase three to five under AUKUS. Each boat contained about 4.5 tonnes of highly processed critical minerals and rare earths, Rudd said.
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The comments came a day after US President Donald Trump met the chief executives of Australian mining companies BHP and Rio Tinto in the Oval Office. The firms are vying to develop America’s largest untapped copper deposit in Arizona under a joint venture known as Resolution Copper.
That project was dealt a blow, however, as a US court granted a temporary injunction against a parcel of land being transferred for the mine, due to opposition from a local Native American tribe. Trump lashed out at the “radical left court”, branding it un-American.
Rudd noted there were another 20 to 25 key mining projects in the US involving Australian companies. “The president recognises the size of these companies, their ability to act,” he said.
Australia has been in discussions with the Trump administration about critical minerals in the context of negotiations over US tariffs, and remains hopeful of securing a deal to reduce some of Trump’s levies.
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