China’s stranglehold on critical minerals exposes a terrifying threat to Western defence

MST Financial Senior Energy Analyst Saul Kavonic warns China’s control of critical-mineral processing could leave Australia, the US and Europe unable to supply vital defence technologies if Beijing decides to cut off access. “From a national security standpoint, the critical minerals that go into everything for defence, especially the latest technology regarding drones, aeronautics, submarines, they rely on critical minerals,” Mr Kavonic told News24 host Jaimee Rogers. “Unfortunately, China controls, in some cases, 80/90, even close to 100 per cent of not necessarily sometimes the mining but especially the [processing. “We actually don’t even have the ability to continue to procure and resource our national security sectors both here, in the United States and Europe, if China decides to turn the tap off.”