Yet again, Western Australia’s resources industries are front and centre of global attention, and for all the right reasons.

From Tokyo to the White House, and now Canada’s G7 meeting of the world’s most advanced economies, everybody is talking about Australia’s resources and the contribution of Western Australia to help solve international problems.

Our state’s gold, iron ore and gas industries have developed and continued to flourish as the world has recognised our potential.

Now the focus is on critical minerals and rare earths elements.

The US-Australia Framework signed by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and President Donald Trump in the White House on 20 October represents a landmark moment for our critical minerals sector.

It will provide immediate and direct investment into Australia’s critical minerals sector and opens the way for further investment into a pipeline of Australian projects already valued at around $13 billion.

The first project to benefit has been the Alcoa-Sojitz Gallium Project in Western Australia, with a $US200 million concessional equity investment from Australia and a US Government equity injection. Japan is also investing with funding for the Sojitz Corporation half of the project.

The G7 is also responding to the urgency to develop alterative supply chains of critical minerals and rare earths.

Australia is not a member of the G7. But the invitation to attend the G7 Energy and Environment Ministers’ meeting was recognition of the role Australia has been playing to open up new supply chains and help make global markets more open and transparent.

The outcome of the G7 meetings is a clear endorsement of Australia’s approach.

The summit supported stronger international coordination and action to secure sustainable, resilient and transparent critical minerals supply chains, and to address supply chain vulnerabilities.

That is code for unexpected trade disruptions for critical minerals and rare earths, which are essential for industries producing clean energy technologies that we all need to achieve net zero by 2050.

They are also crucial inputs into electronic and medical devices and modern defence technology.

The G7 ministers also endorsed more cooperation to build standards-based markets for critical minerals and rare earths. Again, Australia has championed this initiative.

Our geology is a gift of nature. But it is clear we have much more than just the right minerals beneath our feet.

The world is also looking at our high safety standards, our environmental stewardship, our respect for communities and First Nations peoples, our skilled workforce, our long-established supply chains and reliability as a resources and energy exporter, and our relative political and economic stability.

And we are a nation that welcomes foreign investment.

In my address to the G7 meeting, I emphasised how Australia is and will remain a reliable, stable and trusted supplier of energy to the world.

Australia is proud that our LNG provides energy security to the region and powers the great cities of Asia, in particular in Japan and the Republic of Korea.

Gas has an important role to play in supporting and firming renewable energy, but also to provide the high heat energy source that is needed to power critical minerals and rare earths processing.

The achievements of recent weeks are the result of steady, patient and consistent work over many years.

Since 2022, the Albanese Government has provided over $28 billon in support to our critical minerals sector - the largest investment in our resources sector in this nation’s history – including a $17 billion Critical Minerals Production Tax Incentive to drive onshore processing projects.

We are currently working on the design and details of our promised $1.2 billion critical minerals strategic reserve, which I anticipate will be up and running by late next year.

In Canada, I joined Canada’s Minister for Resources and Energy Tim Hodgson to sign a Joint Declaration of Intent on critical minerals cooperation. The agreement could lead to cross investment in our respective critical minerals strategic reserves.

More work needs to be done to diversify global critical minerals supply chains.

But all of these measures, and the support of our trade partners and allies, means Australia will be able to deal with future market disruption from a position of strength.

And Western Australia will be at the centre of that work.

Published in The West Australian, 7 November 2025.