Miners confident China's stranglehold on rare earths can be broken | The Business | ABC NEWS

The bosses of Australia's critical minerals and rare earths miners couldn't be happier after Donald trump and Anthony Albanese signed a deal, aimed at kickstarting enough mining and processing projects in Australia, and the US to counter China's dominance in the sector. Each nation has committed at least $US1 billion to develop projects in the next six months, pledging a combined investment of $US8.5 billion over the longer term. ABC's chief business correspondent Ian Verrender joins Kirsten Aiken to unpack the deal, and industry bosses give their reaction. Arafura Rare Earths shares rallied to a three-year high in the hours after the deal was announced, before ending the day flat. Chief executive Darryl Cuzzubbo says China has controlled the price which means there hasn't been commerical inventives for rare earths projects to get up. He said with the US support, they have created an independent pricing index through a company called Benchmark Minerals Intelligence that in time will reflect supply demand fundamentals. Australian Strategic Minerals chief executive, Rowena Smith, says we need to build supply chains across jurisdictions. ASM is planning to mine, then process to oxides in Australia. She said this is the most capital intensive part of the supply chain, which is why both American and Australian institutional and government support is important. Oxides then need to be converted into metals, then alloyed before becoming magnets. ASM has these facilities in South Korea but is looking to build new ones in America. PLS, formerly known as Pilbara Minerals, chief executive Dale Henderson says the company is poised to potentially do well out of these types of announcements given PLS is the largest hard rock lithium operator globally. He said while most of its lithium spodumene goes to China, the miner's future project pipeline can be deployed to "wherever in the world makes most sense." He said the company is seeking to diversify and has a joint venture with POSCO in South Korea. He backs the government's 'Critical Minerals Strategic Reserve' and says a floor price for critical minerials would be helpful. #ABCBusiness Subscribe: http://ab.co/1svxLVE Read more here: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-10-2... ABC NEWS provides around the clock coverage of news events as they break in Australia and abroad. It's news when you want it, from Australia's most trusted news organisation. For more from ABC NEWS, click here: https://ab.co/2kxYCZY Watch more ABC NEWS content ad-free on ABC iview: https://ab.co/2OB7Mk1 Go deeper on our ABC NEWS In-depth channel: https://ab.co/2lNeBn2 Like ABC NEWS on Facebook:   / abcnews.au   Follow ABC NEWS on Instagram:   / abcnews_au   Follow ABC NEWS on X (Twitter):   / abcnews   Note: In most cases, our captions are auto-generated. #ABCNEWS #ABCNEWSAustralia