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2023-04-02 Down Under
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Australia: We ‘Don't Want' U.S. to Dominate Lithium Supplies, Are Seeking Sales to India
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[Breitbart] Multiple ministers in the government of Australia expressed this week an interest in expanding exports of lithium to India, particularly in response to concerns that America has become too lucrative a market for exports and may corner lithium supplies.
Lithium is a key mineral in the manufacture of electric vehicle and other batteries necessary for the development of a “green” economy away from fossil fuels. Australia is the world’s largest producer of lithium, considerably above the production of Chile and China, the second and third most productive lithium mining countries in the world. Australia’s abundant lithium supply is not matched by refining and other manufacturing capacity, meaning it largely exports lithium to the United States and China, the latter of which currently dominates the manufacture of lithium batteries. Given its prominence as the top lithium battery maker in the world, the Chinese Communist Party has invested heavily in buying up mines and processing facilities in Chile and Australia, as well as other potentially large suppliers in Africa, primarily Zimbabwe.
The government of left-wing Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, discussing Australia’s lithium trade, expressed far more concern with America becoming too attractive a market for its lithium exports in the near future than with China’s potential dominance in the sector. The Indian newspaper the Hindu reported on Friday that Trade and Tourism Minister Don Farrell, speaking to reporters, said his government was concerned that the “Inflation Reduction Act,” a Democrat-led law passed last year to greatly increase government funding for “green” initiatives, would lead to most Australian lithium ending up in the United States.
The “Inflation Reduction Act” included a provision that requires at least 40 percent of lithium imported for battery manufacture to come from countries that have a free trade agreement with America, which includes Australia.
“There are very few countries with both an FTA [Free Trade Agreement] and the largest reserves and we are one of them. So we see great opportunity for Australia,” Farrell told reporters, according to the Hindu. “What we don’t want to see is all of those critical minerals gathered up and headed to the United States.”
Farrell reportedly suggested that India would be a desirable destination for Australian lithium to ensure a variety of purchasers.
“We give you the opportunity of investing in our country. India is building an electric vehicles industry and Australia would like to be part of it,” he said.
The Australian government appeared to be responding to pressure from its domestic lithium corporations, who see America as a “threat” because its market is too comparatively favorable to other countries – and it may discourage Australians seeking to establish lithium refining plants from doing so at home.
“The new policy environment [in the US] creates both an opportunity and threat to Australia’s downstream ambitions,” Mineral Resources, a top Australian lithium producer, said in a letter to the Albanese administration this week.
The letter continued:
The fact that prior to the IRA [Inflation Reduction Act], the US was already one of the world’s most competitive manufacturing economies – and Australia was one of the world’s least – means it will now be more challenging for Australia to move much further down the lithium-ion value chain and for Australian companies to convince overseas joint venture partners and investors to invest in Australia.
“The IRA will also incentivise US companies to invest in Australian mines as means to secure critical minerals, with the added incentives then offered to building battery chemicals in the US,” the letter reportedly continued. “This has the net effect of creating a significant disincentive for US companies to invest further in battery chemical facilities in Australia.”
The Australian Financial Review reported this week that Mineral Resources (MinRes) urged the government to offer tax and other incentives to lithium battery producers in Australia to keep them home, and to keep American companies from buying up lithium mines in Australia.
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