South32 has emerged as one of the big winners from the Biden administration’s efforts to break China’s stranglehold on the supply of critical minerals, with the miner in line for $US166 million ($243.8 million) to process battery-grade manganese.

The US Energy Department announced the funding for the Graham Kerr-led diversified miner, which will be used to advance processing of manganese from its multibillion-dollar Hermosa project in the Patagonia Mountains of Arizona,