TRANSCRIPT:
Critical minerals are - as the name suggests - becoming increasingly critical in the modern world.
They underpin technology used by billions of people, like smartphones and computers.
In 2026, they are both an economic and literal weapon - according to Federal Resources Minister Madeleine King, who describes the strategic reserve of these resources as a matter of national security.
"Especially in turns of antimony and gallium and rare earth elements, they are very important within the AUKUS context as well, so making sure those products are available for the builds of what our three nations are doing with the submarines is also very important."
Gallium, antimony and rare earths have been listed as priority resources for Australia's 1.2 billion dollar critical minerals reserve.
Antimony can be used in a number of ways, including to harden bullets and as a component of missile guidance systems and night-vision goggles.
Gallium is also important for military equipment, including as a component of advanced radar systems.
The reserve also allows the Federal Government to buy minerals from Australian mines and sell to other nations.
In October , Prime Minister Anthony Albanese signed the Critical Minerals Framework deal for critical minerals with the Trump Administration in the US.
"Well this is an eight and a half billion dollar pipeline, ready to go."
Trump: "Yes, ready to go."
That pipeline - and this new announcement - is designed to ensure regular supply of minerals to the US, with president Donald Trump making this forecast last year:
"A year from now we will have so much critical mineral and rare earths that you won't know what to do with them, they'll be worth about two dollars."
It's not yet been a year, but from Airforce One today he was revealing where some of those minerals would be used.
"I'm going to be making a trip to Detroit to talk about our unbelievable amount of factories opening up around the country, many of which are car factories. We have manufacturing plants opening up at a level nobody has ever seen before."
The Albanese government in total is committing around 28 billion dollars to fund a series of measures to support the sector.
However, Shadow Resources Minister Susan McDonald told Sky News she is concerned domestic policy will impede Australia's international plans.
"We have been warning for years that Labor needs to ensuring the supply of these critical minerals and that means insuring mining. That means not introducing more legislation like the EPB. It means reducing the costs of processing. You know, if we just talk about gallium for a second. I mean, that is a by product of bauxite mining and yet, bauxite processing is on its knees."
Most of Australia's critical minerals have been processed in China, which controlled close to 90 per cent of the resource's global supply chain last year.
That reliance is shared by other advanced economies, with finance ministers from G7 nations in Washington D-C to discuss the issue.
Federal Treasurer, Jim Chalmers, will be there to spruik Australia's place on the critical minerals supply chain - and potential to disrupt China's monopoly.
According to the resources minister, it signals Australia's place on the global stage.
"What this says is that whilst Australia is not a member of the G-7, because of our extraordinary resources sector and natural advantages in resources and critical minerals we are welcome at these forums as a leader in rare earths and critical minerals globally."
Japan has sent a ship on a rare earths mission, as it seeks to further reduce its reliance on China for critical minerals processing.
