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Federal Minister for Resources and
Northern Australia Hon Matt Canavan with
US Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross and
US Ambassador to Australia Arthur B.
Culvahouse Jnr

n late 2017, US President Donald Trump It is likely that Canavan will be serv- total funding to opportunities in the criti-
Iissued Executive Order 13817, identify- ing parliamentary duties during that time cal minerals space and it will be a great
ing that the “dependency of the United with Australia to be represented in the opportunity for EFA to also work with US
States on foreign sources creates a stra- US by the head of Australia’s new Critical finance authorities to try and support
tegic vulnerability for both its economy Minerals Facilitation Office, which was some of these projects over the line.”
and military to adverse foreign govern- launched in January. Outside of China, Australia is the
ment action, natural disaster, and other Around the time of Canavan’s last visit world’s largest producer of rare earths,
events that can disrupt supply of these to the US in late 2019, it was announced however, processing the minerals is pre-
key minerals”. that low-interest loans from the $4.4 bil- dominantly tied to countries in Asia.
This was followed by the establishment lion Defence Export Facility would be The US has designs on developing in-
of a Federal Strategy to Ensure Secure available to rare earth miners in an effort house processing capacity and Australia
and Reliable Supplies of Critical Minerals to remove the monopoly China has on is in the queue to help drive that ambi-
with Australia one of four countries ear- the global rare earths sector. tion.
marked to play a pivotal role in achiev- To emphasise how eager Australia “We’re supportive of various proposals
ing this initially through the Australia-US and the US are to curb China’s influ- to do so. We’re hopeful for more focus
Critical Minerals Dialogue, initiated last ence on the rare earths market, access on that and the tender for that process
year. to dual funding would also be opened up closed before Christmas; I think we have
Federal Minister for Resources and through Export Finance Australia (EFA) a very good opportunity for our country
Northern Australia Hon Matt Canavan as well as the Northern Australia Infra- to help secure the relationship,” Canavan
cemented Australia’s standing in the bi- structure Facility (NAIF). said.
lateral cooperation on critical minerals “More generally, longer term there are “Not only the US, but other countries
with the US after several meetings with more bigger projects that we’re looking to are now alert to the issue of securing
US Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross work with the US on and we’re commit- a reliable supply of these minerals. It
and other US government officials over ted to our export finance arms working is understandable that things like rare
the past two years. The Australia-US together and cooperating on any oppor- earths, cobalt and other commodities
Critical Minerals Dialogue was created tunities that arise,” Canavan told Paydirt. have flown under the radar for some time
last year and will have its next meeting “Before I left for the US last year, we because they are not large markets. The
on February 26. announced that we’d open up $4 billion in global market for rare earths is nomi-

Canavan with New Century Resources Ltd managing director
Patrick Walta at the Century zinc mine in Queensland
aUSTRaLIa’S PaYDIRT FeBRUaRY 2020 Page 21