NewsBite

Critical minerals

Advertisement
An F-35 fighter jet.

How China is controlling Australia’s – and the world’s – rare earths trade

China is threatening to land a knockout blow in its trade war with Donald Trump, targeting a vulnerability in the United States’ most crucial military infrastructure with a strike that was decades in the making.

  • Simon Johanson and Colin Kruger

Latest

Footage online appears to show an Optimus model talking to an attendee at the event and having a discussion about where it lives and where it was trained.

Elon Musk warns rare earth magnet shortage may delay Tesla’s robots

China’s halt this month on exports of magnets containing heavy rare earth metals has affected Tesla’s plans to manufacture Optimus robots.

  • Keith Bradsher
One thing that has kept Australia in Trump’s good books has been the fact we have a trade deficit with the US.

Trump wants them. China needs them. So Albanese has a $1b scheme to stockpile them

Labor has pledged to create a stockpile for critical minerals, which are coveted by US president Donald Trump while supply is controlled by China.

  • Mike Foley and Nick Toscano
US President Donald Trump.

The two Australian giants winning from Trump’s fast track

President Donald Trump’s administration is speeding up approvals for critical mineral projects in its trade war with China.

  • Simon Johanson and Paul-Alain Hunt
WA opposition leader Mia Davies.

Nationals’ WA hopeful backs Labor’s ‘billions for billionaires’ mining policy

The Nationals candidate for one of the most-watched seats in the country in the upcoming federal election is making a move that may raise eyebrows.

  • Hamish Hastie
The heavy rare earth metals covered by the export suspension are used in magnets essential for many kinds of electric motors, including EVs.

China halts critical mineral, magnet exports as trade war intensifies

The move threatens to choke off supplies of components central to car makers, aerospace manufacturers, semiconductor companies and military contractors around the world.

  • Keith Bradsher
Advertisement
Trump is a big fan of tariffs.

Trump is intensifying his trade war. Australia may not be immune

Donald Trump is backing up his belief that tariff “is the most beautiful word in the dictionary”.

  • Stephen Bartholomeusz
A rare earths plant in Kalgoorlie, Western Australia, run by the Australian company Lynas.

Australia close to breaking China’s critical mineral stranglehold

Australian firms are within a few years of refining most of the rare minerals used in the world’s critical defence systems, electric vehicles and clean energy transition.

  • Simon Johanson
Rory Marples in Gome in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

‘On the streets I once walked dead bodies lay prostrate and forgotten’

I’m heartbroken by the violence that erupted in the vibrant city where I treated patients only last year.

  • Dr Rory Marples
Morgan Stanley says lithium has “likely found a near-term floor,” but further cuts are needed to bring the market back into balance.

Lithium’s rocky patch: Key building block of EV revolution faces uncertain future under Trump

While prices have started to pick up again, this major green energy metal’s fortunes in 2025 will hinge on whether electric vehicles sales can maintain their momentum.

  • Simon Johanson and Nick Toscano

Original URL: https://www.watoday.com.au/topic/critical-minerals-1nus