Five years ago you could attend a mining conference and never hear the term “critical minerals” uttered once. But that has all changed. auspol ausbiz
coking coal as a critical mineral because it has huge volumes and the local steel making industry is small; most coking coal mined in Australia is exported.So even though coking coal was Australia’s second most lucrative export commodity last year, it’s not deemed “critical” because Australia does not fear a shortage.The terms “rare earths” and “critical minerals” are often used interchangeably.
Lithium is classified as a “critical mineral” by governments in Australia, the US and Europe, but it is not a rare earth. Eight other minerals are also entirely supplied by China according to EU research; erbium, europium, gadolinium, holmium, lutetium, thulium, yttrium and ytterbium.As we mentioned earlier, rare earths like neodymium, praseodymium, terbium and dysprosium are important for defence applications like drones, lasers and night-vision goggles.
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