Policies

Critical Minerals List

Last updated: 3 May 2024

Australia's critical minerals list highlights the country's priority critical minerals based on Australia's geological endowment and potential with global technology needs, particularly those of partner countries around electrification, advanced manufacturing and defence.
As of the 2022 Critical Minerals Strategy, the list includes 26 critical minerals. The list is a table including information on which minerals are also prioritised on other countries' national lists, each mineral's geological potential in Australia, the minerals' economic demonstrated resources for 2020, Australian production for 2020 and global production for 2020. The critical minerals listed benefit from project facilitation, increased government engagement and government investment. The list comprises the following minerals:

  • High purity alumina
  • Antimony
  • Arsenic
  • Beryllium
  • Bismuth
  • Chromium
  • Cobalt
  • Fluorine
  • Gallium
  • Germanium
  • Graphite
  • Hafnium
  • Indium
  • Lithium
  • Magnesium
  • Manganese
  • Nickel
  • Niobium
  • Platinum-group elements
  • Rare-earth elements
  • Rhenium
  • Scandium
  • Selenium
  • Silicon
  • Tantalum
  • Tellurium
  • Titanium
  • Tungsten
  • Vanadium
  • Zirconium

The minerals in bold are additions to the 2022 list, designated critical after consultation with the critical minerals industry and Australia's sciences agencies, because of their use in a variety of technologies including lithium-ion batteries and semiconductors. 
The minerals in italic are additions to the 2023 list, updated on 16 December 2023. Helium was removed in this update.
Nickel was added to the list in February 2024 in response to challenging global market conditions for the metal.

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