Chinese Premier Li Qiang (李強) yesterday toured the plant of a Chinese-controlled lithium refiner in Perth, a sign of his nation’s vast appetite for Australian “critical minerals” essential to clean energy technologies.
Li ended his four-day fence-mending visit to Australia by stopping at Tianqi Lithium Energy Australia, a 51 percent Chinese-owned venture comprising a mine for hard rock lithium ore, and a lithium refinery.
Along with at least a dozen other officials, China’s second-most powerful man donned a white helmet during a rainy visit to the facility south of Perth in resource-rich Western Australia.
Photo: Reuters
Australia extracts 52 percent of the world’s lithium, the vast majority of it exported as an ore to China for eventual refining and use in batteries, notably in China’s electric vehicle industry, but despite being a huge Australian customer, China’s involvement in the nation’s critical mineral industry is sensitive because of its dominance of global supply chains.
Australia has only recently begun refining lithium rather than exporting the ore and the government has announced a strategic plan to develop new supply chains with friendly nations for critical minerals such as lithium, nickel and so-called rare earths.
Earlier this year, the Australian government ordered five China-linked shareholders to sell off a combined 10 percent stake in Northern Minerals, a producer of the rare earth dysprosium.
Such foreign ownership was against Australia’s “national interests,” Australian Treasurer Jim Chalmers said.
About 99 percent of the world’s dysprosium — used in high-performance magnets — is currently produced in China.
China has invested in critical minerals in Latin America, Africa and Australia over the past 10 to 20 years, said Marina Zhang, associate professor at the University of Technology Sydney’s Australia-China Relations Institute.
Developing supply chains independent of China is “fine and dandy,” but unlikely to be achieved even in the short to medium term, she said.
“We are facing a very time-pressing issue that is fighting against climate change — so that issue should be at the center of the discourse, but unfortunately the Western allies are taking the approach that China’s dominance across the supply chains of critical minerals is imposing national security threats,” Zhang said.
China’s narrative was that it was investing and making a contribution to sustainability and environmental protection, she said.
Li’s agenda included a visit to a private research facility for clean energy-produced “green hydrogen” — touted as a fuel of the future to power heavy-duty items such as trucks and blast furnaces.
The research center in eastern Perth is owned by a renewable energy arm of Australian billionaire Andrew Forrest’s Fortescue metal mining group.
Forrest welcomed the resolution of a diplomatic spat that sparked Chinese trade sanctions against a slew of Australian exports in 2020.
China’s trade measures have been largely dismantled.
“Any government of Australia which goes out of its way to annoy its biggest customer is probably going to stop being that customer’s favourite supplier,” Forrest told the Australian in an interview ahead of the visit. “You can’t run around kicking your customers and still expect to sell a lot of boots.”
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