US, Australia sign historic deal to secure rare earth minerals and counter China

US President Donald Trump has signed a historic agreement with Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to increase America’s access to rare earth elements and other critical minerals.

This agreement was made to counter China’s tight control over the supply chains of essential metals.

The two governments will jointly invest in a series of mining and processing projects in Australia to boost the production of commodities used in advanced technologies, from electric vehicles and semiconductors to fighter jets.

Albanese noted that Australia has a “ready pipeline” of $8.5 billion, while Trump, during the two leaders’ meeting at the White House, said, “In about a year, we will have so many critical minerals and rare earths that you won’t know what to do with them.”

Washington has been in a dispute with the Asian giant over rare earth elements since Beijing imposed restrictions on the export of these materials earlier this year, countering Trump’s trade offensive.

The expectation of further tightening supplies has spurred America’s efforts to build alternative production capacity, although industry executives and analysts warn that replacing the vast network of mines and refineries will not be a quick process.

The leaders stated that the agreement will also cover the processing of Australia’s rare earth elements and other critical minerals. Albanese added that Australia has the “capacity” to expand these efforts.

According to the text of the agreement distributed by Albanese’s office, the US and Australia are committed to protecting their domestic markets from “unfair trade practices,” including adopting trade standards that involve “price floors or similar measures.”

“This is the most significant bilateral mining collaboration we have seen between two major Western countries,” said Gracelin Baskaran, a director who works on critical minerals at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, in a phone statement. “Today’s announcement truly shows that the US is not trying to tackle critical minerals alone. It is trying to find the right partners.”

The Australian prime minister said on Tuesday that the deal, which has caused a major increase in Australia’s rare earth and critical mineral stocks, will begin with the US and Australia paying more than $1 billion for the first projects over the next six months, with some other projects in both countries as well.

The document does not include details on which organizations will provide this financing.

Rare earth elements are a subset of critical minerals. Even before the recent export controls, China had imposed restrictions on the supply of vital inputs such as gallium, germanium, and antimony.

According to the White House, the Pentagon will provide financial support for the construction of the Alcoa-Sojitz gallium refinery planned in Western Australia, with an annual capacity of 100 tons, as part of the agreement.

The US Ex-Im Bank is also issuing letters of intent to provide more than $2.2 billion in financing for critical mineral projects.

This meeting, Albanese’s first visit to the White House since Trump returned to power, comes at a time when the Australian leader is trying to strengthen relations with the US by using his country’s mineral wealth as leverage.

As China’s rare earth export restrictions shake economies worldwide, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said last week that allies, including Australia, were in discussions on a joint response.

Australia, which has the world’s fourth-largest reserves of rare earth elements, has long sought to be an alternative to China for the supply of materials vital for semiconductors, defense technology, renewable energy, and other sectors.

The country is also home to the only producer of heavy rare earth elements outside of China, through Lynas Rare Earths.

Efforts to secure the deal had already begun before Albanese’s visit. According to people familiar with the talks, more than a dozen Australian mining companies held meetings with officials from various agencies in Washington last month, and it was said that the US was looking for ways to obtain equity-like stakes in companies as part of a broader strategy to develop supply chains to compete with China.

Australian Treasurer Jim Chalmers met with US investors from companies like Blackstone and Blue Owl Capital in New York last week, promoting his country as a stable, resource-rich destination for global capital and a key partner in efforts to diversify critical supply chains.

Confidence is growing that Australia and the US will begin talks on how Canberra can secure its rare earth shipments and how the US can strengthen its capacity.

This belief has fueled investor enthusiasm, and shares of mining companies like Lynas have gained over 150% in the last 12 months.

Trump also said the two leaders discussed “trade, submarines, and many other military equipment,” and that national security issues were high on the agenda.

The US president has pushed Canberra to increase its defense spending from the current level of around 2% to 3.5% of its gross domestic product, but Australia has so far resisted this demand.

The White House announced that Australia has agreed to purchase $1.2 billion worth of underwater drones and will take delivery of the first batch of Apache helicopters under a separate $2.6 billion deal.

Another important issue is the sale of five nuclear-powered Virginia-class submarines by the US to Australia in the early 2030s under the AUKUS agreement.

Australia and the United Kingdom will later design and build a new generation of submarines, partly using American technology, which is planned to be completed in the 2040s.

The AUKUS agreement was signed in 2021 by former President Joe Biden’s team to counter China’s military expansion in the Indo-Pacific region.

The submarine deal is at the center of the countries’ collective security agreement, but according to the Pentagon, the Trump administration is reviewing the deal to determine if it is “compatible with the President’s America First agenda,” which raises concerns that Trump might abandon the agreement.

However, Australian and UK officials have downplayed this possibility. Trump, for his part, indicated on Monday that he plans to proceed with the submarine sales.

In response to a question about accelerating the sales, Trump said, “We’re doing it. We have the best submarines in the world, and we are building a few more right now. We are starting now, we have arranged everything with Anthony.”

The US president also praised the military cooperation between the two allied nations.

Still, Trump implied he would not offer the tariff reduction that Canberra has requested as a country with a trade deficit with the US. Trump has imposed a 10% tariff on Australian goods, which is the base rate the president applies to the products of many other countries.

“Australia pays very low tariffs, very, very low tariffs,” Trump said.