Australia, US should form battery mineral alliance, says lithium chief – by Jacob Greber (Australian Financial Review – May 22, 2019)

https://www.afr.com/

Washington | Australia and the US may need to jettison free-market orthodoxy and develop a strategic alliance to guarantee supply of the raw materials essential to the new era of battery-based electrification.

James Calaway, chairman of Australian-listed lithium developer Ioneer, said there was an “unusual amount” of interest within the US and Australian governments over the vulnerabilities of critical supply chains for battery technology.

“I don’t think we need to get into protectionism, but we can talk about what do we need to do to encourage domestic investment in value-added materials and development,” Mr Calaway, who is based in Houston, Texas, said in an interview. “That shouldn’t be off the table.”

Ioneer, which changed its name from Global Geoscience last year, is looking to develop a major lithium mine in southern Nevada that would deliver by next decade a five-fold surge in total US supply to producers, including Elon Musk’s Gigafactory in the same state.

The move comes amid growing concern over the supply security of critical materials as the clash between China and the US intensifies. China sent fresh shivers through US financial markets on Tuesday (Wednesday AEST) after president Xi Jinping visited a Chinese rare earth mining facility.

For the rest of this article: https://www.afr.com/news/world/north-america/australia-us-should-form-battery-mineral-alliance-says-lithium-chief-20190522-p51pu7