On Tuesday, Premier Li Qiang visited a lithium refinery under Chinese control in Perth, demonstrating the great need in his nation for Australian “critical minerals” needed for sustainable energy technologies.
Li took a tour of Western Australia’s resource-rich low-carbon energy sector to cap up his four days in Australia.
His first destination was Tianqi Lithium Energy Australia, a 51 percent Chinese-owned company that consists of a lithium refinery and a hard rock lithium ore mine.
China’s second most powerful man visited the facility south of Perth in the rain, wearing a white helmet along with at least a dozen other officials.
The Chinese premier will also tour a private research facility that produces “green hydrogen” using sustainable energy. Green hydrogen is hailed as the fuel of the future that will power heavy machinery like blast furnaces and vehicles.
52 percent of the world’s lithium is extracted in Australia, with the great majority of it being sent to China as an ore for further refining and use in batteries, particularly in that country’s booming electric vehicle sector.
China is a major Australian consumer, but because of its control over global supply networks, its engagement in the vital mining industry is delicate.
Only lately has Australia started processing lithium instead of shipping the ore abroad.
And the government has announced a strategic plan to develop new supply chains with friendly countries for critical minerals such as lithium, nickel and so-called rare earths.
Earlier this year, the government ordered five China-linked shareholders to sell off a combined 10 percent stake in Northern Minerals, a producer of the rare earth dysprosium.
Treasurer Jim Chalmers stated that such foreign ownership went against Australia’s “national interests”.
Currently, China produces 99 percent of the dysprosium utilized worldwide in high-performance magnets.
Over the past ten to twenty years, China has made investments in vital minerals in Australia, Africa, and Latin America, according to Marina Zhang, an associate professor at the Australia-China Relations Institute at the University of Technology Sydney.
It is “fine and dandy” to develop supply chains that are independent of China, but she added it is unlikely to happen, even in the short to medium term.
“We are facing a very time-pressing issue that is fighting against climate change — so that issue should be at the centre of the discourse,” Zhang said.
“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,” she said.
However, the analyst pointed out that China’s narrative was that it was investing in and contributing to environmental protection and sustainability.
