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Brad Thompson is The Australian’s mining reporter, covering all aspects of the resources industry and based in Perth.

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Questions remainIndigenous

CANBERRA, AUSTRALIA, NewsWire Photos. APRIL 17, 2024: High Court of Australia in Canberra. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Martin Ollman

States grapple with native title fallout

A landmark High Court ruling that native title is property has left state governments and miners grappling with the consequences.

Paige Taylor and Brad Thompson

MiningMining & Energy

CANBERRA, AUSTRALIA - NewsWire Photos - February 26 2025:Senator Linda Reynolds during the Community Affairs Estimates at Parliament House in Canberra. Picture: NewsWire / Martin Ollman

China is a manipulator of critical minerals, Linda Reynolds says

Northern Minerals’ experience trying to get Chinese-linked investors off its register gives weight to Senator Linda Reynolds’ claim the company is caught in a proxy war between Australia and China.

Brad Thompson

MiningMining & Energy

Northern Minerals' Browns Range heavy rare earths project. Picture - Supplied

Rare earths group’s Chinese investors defy Chalmers order

China-linked investors are defying orders from the Albanese government to sell shares in Northern Minerals’ strategically important rare earths project.

Brad Thompson

MiningMining & Energy

Demand for lithium has skyrocketed with the rise of lithium-ion batteries, putting it at the center of a global scramble. Shown, an aerial view of the brine pools and processing plant at the SQM lithium mine on the Chile’s Atacama salt flat in 2013. PHOTO: IVAN ALVARADO/REUTERS

AVZ breaks silence over US talks on Congo lithium project

Perth-based AVZ Minerals has revealed more detail over its legal victory on controversial lithium project claimed by China in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Brad Thompson

MININGMining & Energy

12/7/2024: Nick Jorss, Executive Chairman, Bowen Coking Coal , interviewed by Chris Jones, Editor, The Courier-Mail, during the Future Resources 2024 lunch at the Brisbane Convention Centre. pic: Lyndon Mechielsen/Courier Mail

Miners say anti-coal policies based on wrong CSIRO numbers

The coal industry says the Albanese government is using incorrect costings to make key decisions about the nation’s energy mix and has singled out science body CSIRO for criticism.

Brad Thompson

‘unlawfully seized by China’Mining & Energy

TOPSHOT - A man uses a stick to sift through the smoldering remains of boxes and materials left behind by looters after widespread vandalism and looting following clashes at the World Food Programme (WFP) warehouse in Bukavu on February 21, 2025. Congolese President Felix Tshisekedi is on a quest for support as war in the east rages, but has so far returned empty-handed from trips abroad while anxiety mounts at home. Tshisekedi recently visited Angola and attended a security conference in Munich without making a clear diplomatic breakthrough, after Rwanda-backed M23 fighters seized control of two major eastern cities in the Democratic Republic of Congo. (Photo by Luis TATO / AFP)

China v Congo: the fallen miner chasing an improbable African prize

The Trump administration is set to intervene on behalf of AVZ to ensure the lion’s share of the Manono lithium project stays out of Chinese hands.

Brad Thompson

PILBARANation

A haul truck is loaded by a digger with material from the pit at Rio Tinto Group's West Angelas iron ore mine in Pilbara, Australia, on Sunday, Feb. 19, 2012. Rio Tinto Group, the world's second-biggest iron ore exporter, will spend $518 million on the first driverless long-distance trains to haul the commodity from its Western Australia mines to ports, boosting efficiency. Photographer: Ian Waldie/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Unions seeking to force Rio to negotiating table

If successful, it will be the first majority support determination at a major Pilbara iron ore mine in more than 20 years.

Ewin Hannan and Brad Thompson

EnergyMining & Energy

Madeleine King Minister for Resources of Australia as both the NT and federal governments have backed critical minerals as key to developing the Northern Territory, and the nations future, addressing the NT Resources Week 2024 conference in Darwin. Picture: Pema Tamang Pakhrin

LNG producers take aim at North West Shelf approval delays

The federal government is under pressure to make a decision about Woodside’s North West Shelf extension as the $70bn LNG export industry seeks to restore investor faith in the industry.

Brad Thompson

ExclusiveMining & Energy

TOPSHOT - A member of the M23 movement looks on as Congolese police officers board trucks for redeployment following an enrollment of civilians, police officers, and former members of the Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of Congo (FARDC) who allegedly decided to join the M23 movement voluntarily in Bukavu on February 22, 2025. Congolese President Felix Tshisekedi is on a quest for support as war in the east rages, but has so far returned empty-handed from trips abroad while anxiety mounts at home. Tshisekedi recently visited Angola and attended a security conference in Munich without making a clear diplomatic breakthrough, after Rwanda-backed M23 fighters seized control of two major eastern cities in the Democratic Republic of Congo. (Photo by Luis TATO / AFP)

US posture on Aussie lithium miner to raise heat with China

The US will challenge China over an embattled Australian company’s claim to a huge lithium deposit in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Brad Thompson

EnergyMining & Energy

28/11/2023: LNG tanker CESI QINGDAO, which has been stranded at the Curtis Island terminal for a week after four of it's motors failed.

Crisis looms as Japanese LNG buyer threatens to ditch Australia

Japan’s biggest buyer of LNG has threatened to take its business elsewhere, at the cost of thousands of jobs, unless urgent policy changes are made to fix Australia’s $70bn export industry.

Brad Thompson and Perry Williams

Original URL: https://www.theaustralian.com.au/author/brad-thompson/page/11