Tuesday, October 21, 2025

Trump, Australia's Albanese Sign Critical Minerals Agreement

Rare earths deal aims to counter China's supply control. US, Australia to invest $1 billion each in mining projects. Trump backs AUKUS submarine deal despite prior review. Trump tells Ambassador Rudd: 'I don't like you either.'

Posted by LampLighter at 06:32 PM | 8 COMMENTS | permalink

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Australia has reserves and mining expertise, and the U.S. is eager to invest in alternatives to China. But building mines, refineries and factories could take years.

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-- The New York Times (@nytimes.com) Oct 21, 2025 at 5:56 AM

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More from the article ...

... U.S. President Donald Trump and Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese signed a critical minerals agreement aimed at countering China on Monday at a meeting marked by Trump's jab at Australia's envoy to the United States over past criticism.

China loomed large at the first White House summit between Trump and Albanese, with the U.S. president also backing a strategic nuclear-powered submarine deal with Australia to bolster security in the Indo-Pacific.

While Trump and Albanese greeted each other warmly, the U.S. president expressed ire about past criticism of him by Australia's U.S. ambassador Kevin Rudd, a former prime minister. Rudd in 2020 called Trump "the most destructive president in history," later deleting the comment from social media.

Trump said he was not aware of the critical comments and asked where the envoy was now. Upon seeing him across the table, Trump said, "I don't like you either, and I probably never will." ...


#1 | Posted by LampLighter at 2025-10-20 06:13 PM

Trump said, "I don't like you either, and I probably never will."

www.politico.eu

Reek only has eyes for Putin.

#2 | Posted by reinheitsgebot at 2025-10-20 06:18 PM

One aspect of this "deal" that I saw reported ...

China supplies the US with refined rare-earth minerals. This deal with Australia is for unrefined raw minerals.

Indeed, Australia supplies the China refineries with rare-earth ore to be refined by China.

Stated differently, China's negotiating point seems to be that they can supply vast qualtities refine rare-earth minerals (about 70% of the world's supply, from what I've seen), and no one else can match that supply.

#3 | Posted by LampLighter at 2025-10-20 06:35 PM

Related ...

Arleigh Burke and Virginia Need Lots of Rare Earths to Make, and For a Good Reason
en.defence-ua.com

... The enormous proportions of rare-earth metals used in making these warships is due to the technological complexity of modern subsystems

Building one Arleigh Burke"class destroyer takes as much as 2.3 tons of rare earth metals, and a Virginia-class nuclear submarine needs 4 tons, according to a report by the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS), a London-based think tank.

This substantial amount of rare earth minerals required for construction of both ships is precisely because of how sophisticated their onboard systems are, the experts note in the context of a larger analysis of the role critical raw materials play in the Western defense industry. ...

[emphasis mine]

#4 | Posted by LampLighter at 2025-10-20 06:38 PM

Trump, Australia's Albanese sign critical minerals agreement

I had no idea that those little pink-eyed guys were hording minerals.

#5 | Posted by censored at 2025-10-20 07:16 PM

Related ...

Auto companies 'in full panic' over rare-earths bottleneck (June 2025)

... Frank Eckard, CEO of a German magnet maker, has been fielding a flood of calls in recent weeks.
Exasperated automakers and parts suppliers have been desperate to find alternative sources of magnets, which are in short supply due to Chinese export curbs.

Some told Eckard their factories could be idled by mid-July without backup magnet supplies. "The whole car industry is in full panic," said Eckard, CEO of Magnosphere, based in Troisdorf, Germany. "They are willing to pay any price."

Car executives have once again been driven into their war rooms, concerned that China's tight export controls on rare-earth magnets -- crucially needed to make cars -- could cripple production. U.S. President Donald Trump said Friday that Chinese President Xi Jinping agreed to let rare earths minerals and magnets flow to the United States.

A U.S. trade team is scheduled to meet Chinese counterparts for talks in London on Monday.

The industry worries that the rare-earths situation could cascade into the third massive supply chain shock in five years. A semiconductor shortage wiped away millions of cars from automakers' production plans, from roughly 2021 to 2023. Before that, the coronavirus pandemic in 2020 shut factories for weeks. ...


#6 | Posted by LampLighter at 2025-10-20 07:21 PM

U.S. President Donald Trump said Friday that Chinese President Xi Jinping agreed to let rare earths minerals and magnets flow to the United States.

Greatest dealmaker ever!

#7 | Posted by REDIAL at 2025-10-20 07:39 PM

@#7 ... U.S. President Donald Trump said Friday that Chinese President Xi Jinping agreed to let rare earths minerals and magnets flow to the United States. ...

Pres Trump has said that previously.

To wit ...

Trump says China's Xi agreed to let rare earth minerals flow to US (June 2025)
www.reuters.com

Yet, here we are ...


#8 | Posted by LampLighter at 2025-10-20 07:48 PM

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