US President Donald Trump has signed a landmark pact with visiting Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to boost America’s access to rare earths and other critical minerals, an effort to counter China’s tight grip on the supply chains of key metals.

The two governments will jointly invest in a swathe of mines and processing projects in Australia to boost production of commodities used in advanced technologies from electric vehicles to semiconductors and fighter planes. Australia has an $8.5 billion “pipeline that we have ready to go,” Albanese said at a meeting between the two leaders at the White House.

“In about a year from now, we’ll have so much critical mineral and rare earths that you won’t know what to do with them,” Trump said.

The US has been locked in a rare-earths tus

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