Resources minister Madeleine King met US navy boss while in Washington

Having helped land Australia’s critical minerals pact with the US, Resources Minister Madeleine King also met with the US Secretary of Navy John Phelan to discuss the nuclear submarine program.

Madeleine King and BHP executive Geraldine Slattery pictured in Perth. Picture: Colin Murty

Resources Minister Madeleine King met with the US Secretary of Navy John Phelan while in Washington signing Australia’s critical minerals pact with the US.

Ms King, who helped secure the $US8.5bn ($13bn) alliance, said the talks with Mr Phelan centred on HMAS Stirling in Western Australia which will become a home port for nuclear submarines as soon as 2027. The meeting underscored the interconnectedness of critical minerals and AUKUS nuclear submarine and defence agreement.

Up to four US Virginia-class and one UK Astute-class submarine will use HMAS Stirling, which sits in Ms King’s electorate of Brand, for maintenance and repairs, and about 1000 US defence personnel will be stationed at the naval base.

Ms King returned to Perth on Thursday after meetings with US interior secretary Doug Burgum and US energy secretary Chris Wright, who will be the key Trump administration players in critical minerals. She also had talks with Export-Import Bank of the US chairman John Jovanovic, who has signed off on non-binding commitments of hundreds of millions of dollars to mining projects in Australia.

“We saw a very strong endorsement of AUKUS from the US president and his team have been given their marching orders so to speak and so it is really positive on that side,” Ms King said.

“Of course, critical minerals and rare earths will be needed as part of building that defence capability and that is part of the duality or connection between the two agreements.”

The Trump administration has taken decisive steps to boost supply of rare earths in response to China restricting supply, including setting a floor price in the US and an equity stake in New York-listed MP Materials alongside WA mining billionaire Gina Rinehart.

“It becomes much more serious when you have supply chain disruptions that impact national security assets and the materials that go into building them,” Ms King said.

Rare earth materials are used in everything from night vision goggles to cruise missiles and fighter jets, as well as electric vehicles, wind turbines and robotics.

US president Donald Trump, in his first term in the White House, raised the issue of rare earths in discussions with former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull in February 2018.

China’s president, Xi Jinping, has weaponised supply chain dominance at flash points in relations with the US, with Beijing tightening export bans to wield its influence.

Asked whether companies that received US and Australian taxpayer support under the critical minerals pact would be banned from selling to China, Ms King pointed to offtake controls the Albanese government imposed on Iluka Resources and its half-built rare earths refinery in WA.

“What we are finding is that the industry itself is choosing to create a non-China supply chain and that might be because of signals from government,” she said.

“There is a certain attraction now to making sure the materials you are producing are not falling into that supply chain. We will work through that with the companies.”

Ms King conceded that the producers of many materials on Australia’s critical minerals list, including lithium, had no choice but to sell into the Chinese market because it was the only viable one. And that even with three lithium hydroxide processing plants now established in WA, most of that output flowed to China for battery manufacturing.

“The trouble is it is hard to restrict where these products go in the absence of a market for them to sell into that works,” Ms King conceded.

“That is why we are setting up a critical minerals strategic reserve. It is exactly why the US has bought into Mountain Pass (the rare earths mine owned by MP Materials) and applied a floor price.

“We are trying to create a functioning market so all those mining projects will be able to sell into a manufacturing industry in Australia and the US, and other countries as well.”

Ms King said she was in talks with industry minister Tim Ayres, who was part of the Australian delegation in Washington, about those challenges.

Originally published as Resources minister Madeleine King met US navy boss while in Washington