[Global Network Report] According to the Associated Press, the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) and other media reports, US President Trump and Australian Prime Minister Albanese signed a critical minerals agreement at the White House on the 20th local time. Albanese said that the agreement will support the successive implementation of "ready" projects worth US $8.5 billion, which can expand Australia's mining and processing capabilities.

The two countries have been pushing forward on these issues since Trump's first term, according to the BBC.Albanies said the latest agreement will take the partnership between the two sides to a "new height".

According to the report, Albanese said that the agreement aims to speed up the investment process of three types of projects, including U.S. investment in processing facilities in Australia. The two sides also agreed to cooperate on issues such as pricing, licensing approval and government review of the sales rules of enterprises and projects in this field.

The U.S. also said it will invest in West Australia to build an advanced uranium refinery with an annual capacity of 100 tons and plans to provide approximately $2.2 billion in funding through the U.S. Import and Export Bank to boost key mineral projects.

The latest framework documents released by the White House did not disclose much detail.The BBC also mentioned that the U.S. government was seeking ways to counter China's dominance in key mineral markets at the time of the agreement signing with Australia.There has been previous analysis that while China tightened export controls on global key minerals, Albani's trip to the U.S. was aimed at gaining U.S. support for Australian key minerals.

While Australia is an important source of critical minerals, like the United States, Australia relies on its largest trading partner China to process these minerals in order to convert them into products available to enterprises. AFP also mentions that although Australia is strong in mineral mining, it is relatively weak in domestic processing capacity, like most mining countries. It is that more than 90% of Australian lithium mines are shipped to large refineries in China for processing each year.