Oct. 20 (UPI) — Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday signed a “framework” of an $8.5 billion deal for projects involving critical minerals and rare earth elements during a meeting at the White House.
The two leaders, along with their aides, met for lunch in the Cabinet Room, where they also discussed military and other trade issuses.
Because of restrictions on Chinese exportrs to the United States, this gives an opportunity for Australia, which has the fourth-largest reserves of the minerals and elements. They are found in Western Australia, the Northern Territory and South Australia.
Rare earth minerals are a group of 17 elements crucial for electronics, including for the defense industry. Though they are called rare, many aren’t scare, including cerium, used for automotive catalytic converters and petroleum refining, which is more common than copper.