Australia has a Chance to do the Most Incredible Thing

one shouldn't be forced to sell the rope that will be used to hang you with

There is absolutely nothing wrong with admitting you were wrong and foolish. It’s OK. You can be fooled by people who take advantage of your good nature. Fair-play and high-trust societies can, if they are not wary, be taken advantage of by bad-faith actors.

The key is that when your vision becomes clear about what has happened, you take appropriate action. You learn your lesson, and you carry on in a more productive manner.

This did not happen by accident, nor was it inspired by capitalist desire alone, though that was the mechanism. Behold the fruit this tree bears.

Via Angus Grigg, Alex McDonald, and Will Nicholas at the Australian Broadcasting Corp.

Chinese companies are the largest shareholders in two Australian mines producing minerals vital for Beijing’s hypersonic missiles and nuclear programs, helping it overcome “severe challenges” to accessing key resources.

In a rare admission of its vulnerability, China says it depends on imports for its supply of zirconium, a little-known critical mineral. Australia is the world’s largest producer and supplies China with 41 per cent of its imports.

And you thought only the West had the problem with access to critical minerals.

This next bit is amazing…a nation is literally at cross purposes with itself and its allies.

Not only did Australian regulators allow Beijing-backed companies to become major shareholders in the two Western Australia mines, the federal government even gave one of them a $160 million soft loan to help it into production.

Australia is supplying these raw materials vital for China’s military build-up, while at the same time signing up to be a partner of choice for the United States as it seeks to break Beijing’s stranglehold over the processing of rare earths and critical minerals.

Don’t worry, it gets worse.

China is not just processing zirconium for its own use.

Data obtained by Four Corners shows it is re-exporting some of it to Russia, helping to fuel President Vladimir Putin’s war machine.

Since the war with Ukraine began in 2022, zirconium exports from China to Russia have surged more than 300 per cent.

Remember recent discussions here and on the Midrats Podcast about China’s growing nuclear weapons stockpiles?

China has sought to plug its zirconium shortfalls by taking major stakes in those two West Australian miners.

One of those is the ASX-listed Image Resources.

Its largest shareholder is China’s LB Group which, like many mainland companies, has close links to the government in Beijing.

China receives 100 per cent of Image Resources’s product. Through a subsidiary, LB Group is its primary customer.

…

In 2017, its chief executive Patrick Mutz told a trade publication that Image Resources’s primary customer was “one of the only companies, if not the only company in China, licensed to produce nuclear-grade zirconium sponge”.

While zirconium sponges are vital for nuclear energy, they are also used in nuclear-powered submarines and aircraft carriers, and play a role in any nuclear weapons program.

When the US bombed Iran’s Isfahan nuclear facility in June, the targets included a zirconium production plant.

…

In 2020, FIRB approved Chinese company Yansteel purchasing a 50 per cent share in the Thunderbird mine.

The first export shipment from the Thunderbird Project arrives in China as a traditional owner calls for further land clearing suspensions at the mine after the discovery of a direction stone.

The mine, which sells 100 per cent of its production to China, was given a major leg-up by the federal government.

In 2022, it received a $160 million concessional loan from the Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility (NAIF), which was a key factor in getting the mine into production.

This next line is the problem. This reflects a historical ignorance conveniently created by simple mercantilist greed.

Despite the clear military uses for zirconium, Defence Minister Richard Marles does not believe tighter controls are needed.

“There are other sources of zirconium from around the world, such that Australia withdrawing from the zirconium market would not mean the military use of zirconium would also stop,” he said.

Mr Marles said Australian jobs and prosperity continued to rely on trade with China, even as military planners worried about a regional conflict between Beijing and Washington.

“China is our largest trading partner on the one hand, and our biggest source of security anxiety on the other. And that’s just the way the world is,” he said.

The Chinese Communist Party has no right to have its fingers in Australian mines, American farmland, or European ports. They do today because our nations were asleep to the long game being played by the PRC, and in come cases, simply easily corruptible. A very few prosper personally, while the entire nation is put further at strategic risk.

We are approaching 2026. Nations have agency, and they have sovereignty over their national resources. We all know who the PRC is and what they want.

The people should demand action. Nothing is worse than being enslaved by the weapons you sold to your enemies.