Australia’s PM Albanese and Trump sign rare earths deal as US confirms Aukus defence agreement – follow live
What do we know about the US-Australia rare earths deal?published at 18:19 BST
Danielle Kaye
New York business reporter
Certain details of the rare
earths deal that Albanese and Trump signed today remain unclear. But the
Australian leader said the agreement includes $1bn in investments from the US
and Australia over the next six months, with projects that are “immediately
available”.
The agreement, he
said, will involve three groups of projects:
-
joint ventures between the US
and Australia, -
projects that the US will
undertake in Australia, including to bolster rare earths processing, and -
projects that Australia will
undertake itself.
“Part of this
deal is a very specific, $8.5bn pipeline,” Albanese said this morning at the White House. He said one
project will include Japan, too, adding that “what we’re trying to do here
is take the opportunities which are there”.
According to the text of the framework agreement, both the US and Australia will leverage government funds and private sector support to invest in mining and processing. Those investments will take the form of “guarantees, loans, or equity; finalization of offtake arrangements; insurance; or regulatory facilitation”, per the signed framework.
The two leaders also agreed to take steps to speed up permitting for rare earths mining and processing – and to address pricing though measures such as “price floors”. Under the agreement, a new rapid response group led by US and Australian officials will help “accelerate delivery of processed minerals”.
“In about a year
from now, we’ll have so much critical mineral and rare earths that you won’t
know what to do with them,” Trump told reporters.
