A US$8.5 billion (AUD$13 billion) critical minerals pact signed by Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and US President Donald Trump could pave the way for a major refinery to be built in WA’s Peel region as early as next year.

WA’s resources sector is giddy with excitement at the push to develop critical minerals resources and refine them.

Anthony Albanese and Donald Trump have signed a major critical minerals deal. Credit: AFP

The US Department of War’s investment into aluminium giant Alcoa and Japanese company Sojitz Corporation’s gallium joint venture is a likely early beneficiary.

Gallium is used in computer chips and can be extracted during the bauxite-to-alumina refining process, meaning the material would come from Alcoa’s strip-mining venture in WA’s Darling Scarp.

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