Australia’s rare earths ambitions are entering increasingly strategic territory.
Governments around the world are racing to secure supplies of the minerals underpinning electric vehicles, advanced electronics, renewable energy, and defence technologies. As such, Australia is positioning itself as a critical alternative to China’s dominance of the global rare earths supply chain.
This news comes as the Australian Government escalates its scrutiny of investors linked to China in rare earths developer Northern Minerals (ASX:NTU).
In May 2026, Australian Treasurer Jim Chalmers ordered six China-linked shareholders to sell their combined holdings by 2 July, citing national security concerns.
After the shareholders failed to comply, the government froze part of their holdings in July and imposed new conditions on Qogir and Real International Resources in August, requiring government review of any share sales.
Northern Minerals is focused on advancing the Browns Range Heavy Rare Earth Project, which sits within a unique mineral setting rich in dysprosium and terbium. The project has a landholding spanning 5,600km2 across Western Australia and the Northern Territory.
That geopolitical backdrop is creating an increasingly important opportunity for Australia’s rare earths exploration and development sector.
Errida Creek
Australia is attempting to build a supply chain capable of processing and refining rare earths domestically.
The Australian Government has committed $1.2 billion to establish a strategic reserve fund to prioritise and secure supplies of critical minerals.
At the same time, new processing infrastructure is beginning to emerge, including the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation’s (ANSTO) first purpose-built, clay-hosted rare earth pilot processing plant in Sydney.
The plant is designed to process material from clay-hosted deposits, which can be rich in heavy rare earths used in renewable energy technologies.
This creates an important runway for Australian explorers.
Companies such as Danakali (NSX:DNK), Connected Minerals (ASX:CML), and RareX (ASX:REE) are working to uncover more rare earth elements (REEs), as well as develop or define resources that could feed into a more diversified supply chain in Australia.
Earlier this year, Danakali identified several rare earth anomalies and sites of mineralisation within the recently granted Errida Creek tenements in Western Australia.
Data indicated known characteristics of ultramafic, alkaline mantle intrusives and dyke complexes within an “abundant strongly magnetic” east-west-trending Proterozoic dolerite dyke.
“The Errida Creek Project is prospective for multiple styles of rare earth elements mineralisation, and we now have many priority targets to explore across the project,” Executive Chairman Seamus Cornelius says.
“We look forward to getting out on the ground this field season and exploring a range of projects that Danakali is steadily developing.”
Danakali has applied for exploration licences covering 1,433km2 across eight separate projects in the Murchison and Gascoyne regions of Western Australia. The projects cover a range of geological settings prospective for rare earths, as well as gold, copper, critical minerals, and base metals.
Of the 23 applications, 10 have been granted, covering 634km2.
Connected in Australia and Angola
Connected Minerals owns the Pallingup Project, which is considered prospective for carbonatite-hosted rare earths and heavy mineral sands within palaeocoastline placer deposits near the southern coast of Western Australia.
The company is planning a maiden field program at the Pallingup Project.
Beyond Australia, Connected also owns an 80% interest in the Bailundo Carbonatite Project in Angola. The company completed an acquisition of Frontier CRM, which owned the interest, in July 2026.
Earlier this month, a maiden 6,000m reverse circulation and diamond drilling program began, focusing on resource drilling across two surface-expressed target areas.
Around 3,000m of drilling across 54 holes will test a 162-hectare northern rare earth target on a broader 150m by 200m pattern.
“The upcoming program will be the first systematic drilling and evaluation program of what we believe is one of the world’s largest and most underexplored carbonatite complexes and represents an important step towards defining a maiden JORC mineral resource,” CEO Stephen Wetherall says.
Cummins Range
Meanwhile, RareX holds an interest in large-scale rare earths projects, including the Cummins Range Project in Western Australia.
Previously speaking to Mining.com.au, CEO James Durrant says the intention with Cummins Range was to explore the scale of the large carbonatite-hosted deposit and assess its potential to develop similarly to Lynas Rare Earths’ (ASX:LYC) Mt Weld mine, which is one of the world’s most valuable REE deposits.
“We want to define and develop a project, whether that’s Cummins Range, which is in the feasibility stage, the award of Mrima Hill, or the acquisition of another project from our [business development] work stream,” Durrant says.
To advance Cummins Range, RareX is evaluating commercial pathways and strategic partnerships following the completion of heritage, licensing, and metallurgy milestones, as reported.
In mid-July 2026, RareX conducted a metallurgical program for Cummins Range, achieving a 9.5x total rare earth oxide (TREO) upgrade to 25.15% grade.
The program aimed to advance three parallel workstreams, including conventional flotation beneficiation of rare earth and phosphate concentrates, the extraction and refining of gallium, and the evaluation of a biologically driven nano-phosphate pathway.
Cummins Range hosts a mineral resource estimate of 524 million tonnes (Mt) @ 0.31% TREO and 4.6% phosphorus pentoxide (P2O5), containing 1.6Mt TREO and 24Mt P2O5.
For these explorers, the geopolitical shift could prove as important as the geology. Australian rare earth projects are being assessed for the strategic role they could play in building the next generation of critical minerals supply chains.
In that environment, rare earth explorers could find themselves sitting on assets that are only becoming more valuable.
Write to Aaliyah Rogan at Mining.com.au
Images: RareX
