To secure diversified critical minerals supply chains against Chinese market dominance, the Quad members must align their commercial, technological and coordination strategies, argues a new report by the United States Studies Centre (USSC) at the University of Sydney.
In Operationalising the Quad Critical Minerals Initiative, USSC Director of Economic Security Hayley Channer and Research Fellow Robert Monterosso detail the findings from the first of two workshops examining how the United States, Japan, India and Australia (the Quad) can operationalise the 2025 Quad Critical Minerals Initiative and the May 2026 framework agreement. The framework agreement promises to mobilise up to US$20 billion in government and private sector funding to strengthen critical minerals supply chains.
This workshop brought together more than 30 experts, policymakers, and industry stakeholders from across the Quad countries to discuss how each country can collaborate on solving the critical minerals challenge.
"The workshop made it clear that the critical minerals challenge can't be solved by countries acting in isolation of one another," noted Hayley Channer. "However, Quad cooperation brings its own challenges — and if the Quad countries are going to leverage their individual strengths, they’ll need to determine what trade-offs they’re willing to make domestically for the greater good of secure global mineral supply chains."
The report finds that the Quad faces deep strategic vulnerabilities due to Chinese domination of 19 out of 20 critical minerals supply chains, necessitating urgent, collective action to unlock alternative supply. To succeed, the report argues that the Quad must coordinate efforts by improving the commercial viability of Quad producers, developing sovereign critical minerals patents, training a skilled workforce and sequencing investments to build end-to-end critical minerals supply chains. Consequently, the report recommends policy actions including tax system alignment, targeted R&D investment and deepened strategic coordination across the Quad.
Over the past 12 months, Australia has deepened its critical minerals partnerships with the United States and Japan. Indian Prime Minister Modi’s visit to Australia this week represents a major opportunity to advance the Australia-India relationship on critical minerals.
"China’s dominance of critical minerals supply chains is a defining challenge of our time; although the Quad has pledged $20 billion in public and private capital in response, implementing this commitment and working with industry is the next, harder step," concluded Channer.
- Operationalising the Quad Critical Minerals Initiative is now available to view or download.