The Australian Government is now operating in line with Caretaker Conventions, pending the outcome of the 2025 federal election.

Our focus areas

Extensive public consultation identified 6 areas to focus on to achieve the Australian Government’s goals for the critical minerals sector.

Diagram summarising the 6 focus areas. A full description of these focus areas follows.

The 6 focus areas of this Strategy

1. Developing strategically important projects

  • Provide targeted and proportionate support to de-risk projects, crowd in commercial finance and help overcome market distortions
  • Enable a pipeline of new critical mineral discoveries and projects by supporting exploration
  • Review R&D support, including licensing and commercialisation settings
  • Attract international IP to grow domestic capability in refining and processing critical minerals
  • Analyse domestic industries and develop options to ensure Australian industries can access the minerals they need.

2. Attracting investment and building international partnerships

  • Optimise trade and investment settings for priority technologies
  • Facilitate business-to-business engagement, including business missions, to secure offtake, equity and debt
  • Attract international investment to support project development and downstream processing opportunities aligned with our national interest
  • Step up our international engagement with bilateral partners and in multilateral forums to align policy frameworks.

3. First Nations engagement and benefit sharing

  • Strengthen engagement and partnerships with First Nations people and communities, respecting their land and water rights and interests
  • Support the critical minerals sector’s immediate and long-term social licence to operate and its ongoing sustainability. This includes creating economic opportunities in regional and First Nations communities while protecting cultural heritage and sacred sites
  • Work with First Nations communities and their representative organisations to build their capacity to engage with critical minerals proponents
  • Work to improve equity and investment opportunities for First Nations interests.

4. Promoting Australia as a world leader in ESG performance

  • Reinforce our high ESG credentials to maintain social license and improve market access
  • Shape global ESG standards to ensure the clean energy transition is socially and environmentally responsible
  • Work with all levels of government to streamline environmental approvals.

5. Unlocking investment in enabling infrastructure and services

  • Work with jurisdictions and industry on ways to unlock investment in enabling infrastructure
  • Ensure public and private infrastructure investment decisions appropriately consider critical minerals projects and related heavy industry precincts
  • Consider how existing infrastructure projects can be augmented to help achieve the vision of this Strategy.

6. Growing a skilled workforce

  • Build on our existing investment in skills and education to increase the number of highly skilled specialists available for critical minerals projects
  • Consider how we can better target and apply our skilled migration settings to support industry needs
  • Work with industry and state and territory governments to improve community sentiment and understanding of the mining sector’s role in energy transition and lift its profile by highlighting the broad range of employment opportunities available, including the role of critical minerals and energy transition metals in net zero.

Explore the focus areas

1. Developing strategically important projects

Targeted, proportionate support from the Australian Government to de-risk strategically important critical minerals projects, attract private finance, and ensure Australian processing and manufacturing projects can...

2. Attracting investment and building international partnerships

Increased investment from and collaboration with likeminded partners to grow Australia’s downstream processing capability and build diverse, resilient and sustainable global supply chains.

3. First Nations engagement and benefit sharing

Genuine engagement and collaboration with First Nations communities that promotes benefit sharing and respects the land and water rights and interests of First Nations people and communities.

4. Promoting Australia as a world leader in ESG performance

Regulatory and policy frameworks set by the Commonwealth Government are fit for purpose and will: • enable fast, efficient and durable environmental approvals while upholding robust environmental protections • emb...

5. Unlocking investment in enabling infrastructure and services

Strategically planned enabling infrastructure and services help develop industrial hubs and link the critical minerals sector to domestic and global markets. This reduces costs, lowers project risk and attracts larg...

6. Growing a skilled workforce

A skilled, diverse and growing workforce that enables the desired development of Australia’s critical minerals sector, particularly as we move into downstream processing.