If EU wants Australia’s critical minerals, ‘get moving or you will miss the boat’, minister says
- Madeleine King, Australian minister of resources, says EU needs to stop haggling and reach a fair trade agreement
- The bloc is trying to reduce its dependency on China, which provides 80 per cent of the EU’s imports of lithium and 100 per cent of its heavy rare earths
Australia has warned the European Union that it will miss out on bountiful supplies of critical minerals if it does not stop haggling over prices and making “unfair” demands over a trade deal.
“Get moving or you will miss the boat” was the message resources minister Madeleine King delivered in Brussels on Tuesday, during an interview with the South China Morning Post and other news outlets.
King is on a tour of European capitals seeking investment that would help bring supplies of processed lithium, nickel and rare earths to market, but warned that the EU already trails China, the US, Japan, South Korea and others in the race to secure the minerals.
“They are a bit behind, that’s fair to say. But they won’t be forever if they kind of step up and turn up, I think that’s really important,” said King.
“If you’ve got some kind of stake in a project, some of that investment comes with negotiation around long-term offtake as well,” she said, using the term for allowing an investor to purchase what is produced.
King said that European industry needed to change its mindset if it hopes to compete for the resources against American businesses that “react really quickly”.
