Australia, Canada sign new deals on critical minerals

SYDNEY – Australia and Canada on March 5 signed a series of new agreements on critical minerals which will involve Australia collaborating with the Group of Seven (G-7) minerals alliance, said Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney.

Western nations have been attempting to diversify their supply chains away from China, which still controls the majority of production and processing of critical minerals, essential for semiconductors and defence applications.

“Earlier today, we signed a series of new agreements on critical minerals, including with respect to the G-7 critical minerals alliance... the largest grouping of trusted democratic mineral reserves in the world,” Mr Carney said in a speech to Australia’s Parliament, on his final day of a three-day visit to the country.

He did not provide further details.

The G-7 alliance is a Canada-led initiative to diversify and secure global critical minerals production and supply.

Both major resources exporters, Canada and Australia together produce about a third of global lithium and uranium, as well as more than 40 per cent of global iron ore.

Canada believes that the best way to address the issue of concentrated supply of critical minerals is through a production alliance or a buyers’ club rather than just a price floor, Energy and Mining Minister Tim Hodgson told Reuters on March 3.

Australia has already allocated A$1.2 billion (S$1.08 billion) to build a critical minerals stockpile, beginning with antimony and gallium.

“There’s a lot Canada and Australia can do together on critical minerals as producer nations,” Australian Resources Minister Madeleine King told Reuters ahead of Mr Carney’s visit.

Middle-power alliance

Mr Carney is on a multi-leg trip across the Asia-Pacific region that includes Japan and India, with his stop in Australia aimed at bolstering relations between the two so-called “middle powers”.

Introducing Mr Carney, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said his address to Parliament – the first by a Canadian leader since 2007 – represented the closeness of the ties between the two nations.

“Australia and Canada are middle powers in a world that is changing. We cannot change it back, but we can back ourselves, back our citizens, and back each other,” Mr Albanese said.

Mr Carney has made the changing global environment a central theme of his visit, using a speech late on March 4 to say the current conflict in the Middle East was a failure of the international order.

“In a world of great power rivalry, middle powers have a choice: Compete for favour or combine for strength,” he told Australia’s Parliament on March 5.

As well as critical minerals, Australia and Canada are also expected to deepen cooperation in areas including defence and maritime security, trade and artificial intelligence, Mr Carney’s office said ahead of the visit. REUTERS