Resource security
Mineral futures: A critical step for Albanese’s Beijing trip
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese's visit to meet China’s President Xi Jinping underscores that the turbulent waves of Australia-China relations are calming down. On the…
Mongolia’s critical role in the global energy transition
Climate change is pushing the world to transition its energy systems at an unprecedented pace. This shift is contingent on a steady supply of minerals and metals critical for the…
Iran’s lithium lode: A potential strategic game-changer
Iran’s recent unearthing of a vast lithium deposit – potentially the world’s second largest – has sent shockwaves through the global lithium competition landscape. Amid the…
What Norway might learn from Nauru after a massive phosphate find
The recent announcement of a high-grade phosphate deposit of at least 70 billion tonnes in Norway by Norge Mining has sparked excitement that it could meet global demand for…
Climate change, ironically, reduces the heat in the South China Sea
Australia’s decision to go ahead with the purchase of nuclear-powered submarines from the United States and United Kingdom reflects a judgement that China, and more particularly…
Vietnam’s challenge to wean off coal
Northeast of Hanoi, the capital of Vietnam, is Quang Ninh province, home of the famous UNESCO World Heritage site, Ha Long Bay. Tourism is part of Vietnam’s economic success story…
Global energy scarcity and the South China Sea
Last month, the Indonesian government approved natural gas exploration in the Tuna gas bloc, part of the largest untapped natural gas deposit in the world. The development of the…
Lithium, lightest metal on earth, carries heavy geopolitical weight
“Control oil and you control nations,” former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger once said. Today, it could be argued that to control lithium – white oil as it were – is to…
To unchain Indonesia’s commodity reliance
Indonesia’s dependence on commodity wealth has been a prominent feature in its economy. The archipelago’s abundance of minerals and agriculture resources coupled with poor local…
Japan-Australia: building a hydrogen supply chain
Of the many issues canvassed at the Quad leaders’ meeting in Tokyo last week, the four partners stressed the importance of common energy supply chains. The leaders agreed in…