Chanticleer Australia ready to play dirty against China’s rare earths manipulation We usually fly the flag for free trade, but the critical minerals reserve suggests the Albanese government is prepared to manipulate as well. May 21, 2025 https://www.afr.com/chanticleer/aus...na-s-rare-earths-manipulation-20250521-p5m136 Resources Minister Madeleine King has a simple message for those who suggest the Albanese government’s critical minerals stockpile represents a deliberate attempt to manipulate the market: Get real. “We can’t pretend that we live in an ideal, global, open and free trade situation,” King told the Financial Review Mining Summit. “I would like to, but that doesn’t exist right now, and I don’t know when it’s coming back.” Madeleine King says Australia cannot pretend trade is fair and open when it comes to rare earths. Ross Swanborough King is blunt. The markets for rare earths and critical minerals are clearly being manipulated, with China’s recent rare earths exports ban – which Lynas chief executive Amanda Lacaze described as sophisticated, in that it can target both products and customers – simply the latest example. The details of the critical minerals reserve are so sketchy at this stage that the whole thing feels more like a state of mind than a concrete proposal. King, who is set to launch a taskforce that will be asked to come up with something in about 12 months, has given only the most basic of outlines. The government will sign offtake agreements with strategic projects on a voluntary basis, and then could do several different things with the minerals it buys: sell to strategic partners (countries or companies), pool minerals to help smaller players and projects get market access or, in relatively rare instances, physically stockpile rare earths for short periods. How all that actually works is yet to be decided. King reckons the reserve needs flexibility to adapt with changes in the market, and certain minerals may come off and on the list at different times. She also says the reserve’s purchasing decisions will be strategic, and won’t be used to support uncommercial projects, although clearly any project that wins the support of the reserve will get a big boost. There’s obviously a lot of grey there, so the rules, systems and processes of this initiative will need to be nailed down. What was clear from Wednesday’s summit was that industry will want to be involved in the development of the government’s plan. But while there is a bit of healthy scepticism – IGO chief executive Ivan Vella pointed to Australia’s experience with the wool board as an example of where such industry schemes can go wrong – the overwhelming view was that the government is on the right track. Rebecca Tomkinson, CEO of the Chamber of Minerals and Energy of Western Australia, says the reserve will not be a panacea, but it is “a recognition that we do need to put in structural supports for what is a very disrupted market and one that has a dominant player to it”. Clearly, there is an element of Australia playing a bit dirty here. Luca Giacovazzi, chief executive of Andrew Forrest’s mining investment vehicle Wyloo, quite rightly called the concept a hybrid between free market principles – which Australia and Australian miners typically defend to the hilt – and China’s approach of out-and-out manipulation. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, he says. “We should give the government some space to come out with what it’s actually going to look like. And I think they should be commended for thinking creatively because this isn’t a simple thing to try and solve for.” Rowena Smith, CEO of rare earths hopeful Australian Strategic Materials, agrees with Giacovazzi that the critical minerals reserve could be quite powerful if it can act as an aggregator for smaller projects which can struggle to convince big customers – say, in the US defence sector – of their legitimacy. At the end of the day, the main thing the critical mineral reserve needs to do is to put a little crack in China’s control of rare earths pricing. As Giacovazzi says, the critical minerals sector is dominated by a landlord – China – that has spent 50 years building its rare earth industry, and it has almost unfettered power to extract economic rents from wherever it wants along the value chain. When it buys critical minerals for its new reserve, the Australian government will have a chance to show the world that rare earths can be priced in a different way. As Smith says, Australia’s rare earths “just want fair pricing and stable pricing” to have a fighting chance in this great global race. The critical minerals reserve won’t be a silver bullet, but it’s a little chance to fight fire with fire
https://www.stocktitan.net/news/NVX...p-to-721-tariffs-on-chinese-akse3ybhpvnm.html U.S. Department of Commerce to Place Up to 721% Tariffs on Chinese Graphite The U.S. Department of Commerce has announced a preliminary decision to impose up to 721% countervailing duty tariffs on Chinese graphite anode material, a crucial component in lithium-ion batteries. This follows the International Trade Commission's February finding that China's artificially cheap graphite exports suppressed U.S. industry development. NOVONIX (NASDAQ: NVX), a member of the American Active Anode Material Producers group that filed the trade case, is positioned to benefit with its Riverside facility scaling to 20,000 tonnes per annum capacity. The company is also developing a second plant at Enterprise South Industrial Park in Chattanooga, Tennessee, which will bring total production capacity to over 50,000 tonnes per annum. Final determinations for both countervailing and antidumping duty investigations are expected around December 5, 2025.
This appears the reason.... Bloomberg... Trump Vows No Tariff Extension, Hardens Threats on Copper, Drugs By Stephanie Lai July 8, 2025 at 10:50 PM GMT+8 Updated onJuly 9, 2025 at 2:11 AM GMT+8 Takeaways President Donald Trump vowed to push forward with his aggressive tariff regime, stressing he would not offer additional extensions on country-specific levies set to hit in early August. Trump said he would impose a 50% rate on copper products being sent into the US and could announce substantial new rates on imports of pharmaceuticals, with drug companies potentially facing a tax as high as 200% on imports. Trump also said he would impose tariffs on countries participating in BRICS, with India facing an additional 10% levy, and that he would unilaterally declare new tariff rates within the next two days if necessary. Summary by Bloomberg AI President Donald Trump vowed to push forward with his aggressive tariff regime in the coming days, stressing he would not offer additional extensions on country-specific levies set to now hit in early August while indicating he could announce substantial new rates on imports of copper and pharmaceuticals.
Behind paywall.... Australia Chanticleer BHP, Rio Tinto in the dark as Trump’s copper storm brews Shaking up a market that’s very good to our two big miners is a big threat. But don’t forget what BHP and Rio Tinto do have in the US. Jul 9, 2025 https://www.afr.com/chanticleer/bhp...as-trump-s-copper-storm-brews-20250709-p5mdlk US President Donald Trump’s trade war on China is far from over. First, we got 50 per cent import tariffs on steel and aluminium, now it’s copper, and some other metal or mineral will be next. Trump is trying to beef up US industry. He wants mines, smelters and metal produced in-country to flow straight into factories and wherever else they are needed. US resilience, security, jobs and budget repair are the long-term goals. Donald Trump is trying to stoke the US commodities sector by taxing imports on metals and minerals like copper. David Rowe Copper smelting is dominated by China and Chinese producers – something that isn’t changing via market forces alone. Trump’s intervention makes those copper imports more expensive, which should provide a leg-up to US miners and producers. The US imported 53 per cent of its copper needs last year, according to Morgan Stanley, mostly from Chile and Canada. The copper import tariff is due to be implemented within weeks. It’s a big global story, not an Australian story. But Australia has a big role to play. BHP and Rio Tinto are two of the biggest copper producers in the world – and both are investing billions of dollars into new copper production. Most of Rio Tinto’s copper comes from Mongolia (Oyu Tolgoi), Chile (Escondida) and the US (Kennecott, home of one of only two US smelters), while BHP is focused on Chile (Escondida, Pampa Norte), Peru (Antamina) and South Australia. A lot of their copper ends up in the US and will get hit by the import tariffs. At face value, the shake-up of the global copper trade is a threat for the two established players. But do not forget, these two mining giants are also sitting on what could be the largest copper mine in North America: Resolution Copper. Resolution Copper could supply 25 per cent of the annual US copper production – or about 500,000 tonnes a year – which would put the icing on their respective copper portfolios. But Resolution Copper is also one of Rio and BHP’s big disappointments. It’s a white elephant; they’ve spent more than $US2 billion each on it, and never mined a pound. The whole thing is wrapped up in native title and environmental disputes, and has been for years. Rio Tinto owns 55 per cent and is in charge. Since Trump was elected, Resolution Copper has had a few wins. It was granted FAST-41 status by the US government to accelerate federal permitting in April, and received environmental approval from the US Department of Agriculture last month. There are challenges (and court cases) from some indigenous Apache people pending and analysts still don’t have it in their BHP or Rio copper forecasts, but clearly there is some momentum. Add Trump’s new copper tariffs, and you’d think this is the type of project he wants to spark. Resolution Copper is locally mined copper for the AI and defence industries, it is jobs, it is a potentially huge capital investment program into a long-life project, and it is from a pair of big, deep-pocketed miners from ally countries. Rio Tinto and BHP were still trying to work out what Trump’s new copper import tariff means on Wednesday morning. Like everything we’ve seen in the past six months, this is policy on the fly with no one too sure about who, what, when, where, or other important details. All we know is the president wants it to happen, and US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnik says it could be in place as soon as this month. The miners were equally in the dark as their investors. “So far, there are no details on whether this would apply to all copper products (e.g. would scrap imports be excluded, like they are for aluminium?), or the exact implementation date,” Morgan Stanley’s commodities strategists told fund managers. Commodities strategists headed straight for what it meant for copper pricing on the world’s two big exchanges – London (LME) and New York (COMEX). Citi’s commodities team said the non-US copper price should fall in the short term. Australian equity investors went straight to BHP and Rio. Both opened marginally higher on an otherwise down day on the ASX – but no one seemed too certain about whether Trump’s copper tariff was good or bad news for them. The copper import tariff announcement is a further reminder of the big forces clashing in politics, the economy, business and markets globally. Trump’s trade war looks far from over. Just in metals and mining, there are 51 different metals and minerals under review as part of the ongoing Critical Minerals S232 investigation, Citi’s team reminded clients on Wednesday morning, including things that are important to Australia and its miners (nickel, zinc, lithium etc). And in the background we have Trump’s reciprocal tariffs – the watered-down ones from “liberation day” back in April. Trump said the August deadline wouldn’t be extended on Wednesday morning, something largely overshadowed by the copper news.