Matthew Canavan (Queensland, Liberal National Party, Minister for Resources and Northern Australia) Share this | Hansard source

As I was saying, we are blessed with rich deposits of these minerals. We are already the world's largest lithium producer—in fact, we've trebled production in eight years, which is remarkable growth, in an industry largely located in Senator O'Sullivan's home state. We are the second-largest producer of rare earths in the world and we have lots of cobalt. We haven't produced much yet, but we have lots of it here, and there is increased demand for it. We are probably one of the countries with the richest diversity of these types of minerals. The United States government has identified 35 different minerals that are critical to their economy. We are in the top five for world production of 14 of those. That fact has led to discussions with the US administration. In the last month, the Prime Minister has held discussions about that with the President. We have agreed to have a high-level meeting in the United States next month to discuss a joint strategy on how we can work together to guarantee the supply of these minerals and to help our two economies to grow and develop.