Can Australia break China’s monopoly on critical minerals?

JUST AS OIL was weaponised by its suppliers in the 1970s, so China’s dominance in the supply and processing of critical minerals could prove threatening. Cobalt, graphite, lithium, nickel, the rare earths and more are called critical for good reason. They are crucial to defence, smartphones and other digital technologies. A handful are essential to wind turbines, batteries and electric vehicles. A clean-energy future is inconceivable without them.China has a near monopoly on many of these minerals. It supplies nearly 90% of processed rare-earth elements. It is by far the biggest processor of lithium. In the Indo-Pacific region, this is driving Australia, Japan, South Korea and others to seek to diversify away from China—in the process defining a new resource-based geopolitics.