Washington | US Energy Secretary Chris Wright warned the Trump administration that major copper and gas projects proposed by Australian resources giants BHP, Rio Tinto and Woodside were being put at risk from the president’s planned revenge tax.

Wright, a former oil and gas chief executive, pointed to Rio and BHP’s proposed Resolution Copper mine in Arizona and Woodside’s Louisiana LNG plant as examples of foreign-backed resources projects that were jeopardised by controversial laws initially backed by President Donald Trump, according to sources with knowledge of his advocacy.