Australia cannot realistically build leading industries around all 31 of its designated critical minerals, a parliamentary inquiry has heard, with calls for a more targeted strategy focused on the strongest commercial opportunities.
In February 2024, the government designated 31 resource commodities as critical minerals—metallic and non-metallic elements that are essential for modern technologies ranging from smartphones, semiconductors, wind turbines, and jet fighters.
According to the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), Australia has abundant reserves of these minerals that could potentially be extracted, refined, and sold to domestic and international markets.
But a recent inquiry into the sector has suggested the country take a more measured approach.
David Whittle, the co-founder of the Critical Minerals Consortium and a mining consultant, believes its not feasible for Australia to develop all 31 critical mineral mining opportunities from beginning to end.
“Australia’s list of critical minerals that covers 31 minerals, in inverted commas, to give you an idea of how extensive that is, that covers 52 out of the 94 naturally occurring atoms in the universe, or at least on planet Earth,” he told the Standing Committee on Primary Industries, which is examining the critical mineral sector.
“So, it’s really a lot, and if you think about that in terms of markets, there are many hundreds of different markets involved, upstream, downstream, the supply chains can be very long for lithium, rare earth elements, etc. So, these are really quite difficult.”
Whittle also said half of those markets were very small, with a global value of less than US$1 billion ($1.45 billion), limiting commercial incentives.
He gave the example of fluorine, a critical mineral essential for semiconductor manufacturing and the production of lithium batteries and solar panels.
According to a report by the global market intelligence and business consulting firm Straits Research, the global elemental fluorine market had a value of US$840 million in 2025 and is projected to grow to just US$910 billion in 2026.
“None of the [Australian] states have indicated that fluorine is something that they have in any great quantity that they want to pursue,” Whittle said.
“So, I think if to the extent that the list is used for the focus of federal government support for critical minerals, I would argue it really ought to be shorter and more focused on those minerals that really focused on things that can be developed in a region, so that you can get that critical mass really working and strong and sustainable in the economic sense.”
Critical Minerals Sector Not Limited to Large Companies
At the same time, Whittle said the critical minerals sector was not the exclusive domain of large companies, arguing that smaller firms could also contribute if the government creates the right conditions.
“It can be done under the right kind of market structures aided by the government collaboratively with industry to set up industrial ecosystems, which are really efficient. It actually happens a lot in China,” he said.
In his submission, Whittle pointed to the example of the Almeria district in Spain, which produces around 38 percent of the country’s horticultural output from just 0.01 percent of its land.
“There’s no big companies; they’re all small companies working collaboratively with mutuals and cooperatives,” he said.
“I’d argue we really need to be thinking hard about that to Australia’s great advantage.”
