12 Jan 2026AUAustraliaDepartment of Industry, Science and Resources

Critical Minerals Strategic Reserve — initial minerals

ActiveStockpilingOfftake agreement

Summary

On 12 January 2026 the Australian Government announced new details of its A$1.2B Critical Minerals Strategic Reserve, naming antimony, gallium and rare earth elements as the first minerals for the Reserve to focus on. The Reserve will operate by securing rights to minerals produced in Australia and on-selling those rights to meet demand. It includes A$1B for transactions to be drawn from the expanded A$5B Critical Minerals Facility and a further A$185M for selective stockpiling, where required, and other implementation costs; the Government said it would bring forward enabling legislation in 2026 to give Export Finance Australia additional powers to support the Reserve.

Analytical significance

A demand-side allied counter to Chinese concentration, framed around supplying partners (Canada, Japan, Europe, UK); follows the October 2025 US-Australia rare earths framework.

Instruments in this event

The separate financial commitments and control clauses this announcement contains, each with its own status history and evidence.

Financial instruments (4)

AUDate not stated

Australian Government (Critical Minerals Facility)

AUD5 billion

Critical Minerals Strategic Reserve — initial minerals

Program envelopeSeveral instruments, split not statedPublicNot stated

AU12 Jan 2026

↳ drawn from the row above

Australian Government (Department of Industry, Science and Resources, with Export Finance Australia)

AUD1 billion

Critical Minerals Strategic Reserve — initial minerals

Program envelopeInstrument not specifiedPublicAnnounced

AU12 Jan 2026

Australian Government

AUD1.2 billion

Critical Minerals Strategic Reserve — initial minerals

Program envelopeSeveral instruments, split not statedPublicAnnounced

AUDate not stated

↳ part of the row above

Australian Government

AUD185 million

Critical Minerals Strategic Reserve — initial minerals

Budget appropriationStockpile purchasePublicAllocatedStockpilingambiguity noted

Framing anchors

Official framing, classified only from quoted passages.

Framing anchorEconomic security

Critical minerals and rare earths are at the heart of our economic and national security

Department of Industry, Science and Resources (Australia)Primary sourceEnglish original

Australian government framing of the Critical Minerals Strategic Reserve.

Affected materials

Rare earth elements (grouped)稀土元素 Antimony锑 Gallium镓

Related events

Events touching the same materials.

9 Oct 2026EUCommission Decision recognising 46 critical raw material projects in the EU as Strategic Projects under the Critical Raw Materials Act 29 Jul 2026JPCertification of Santoku's critical-minerals supply-assurance plan for rare earths under the Economic Security Promotion Act 23 Jul 2026JPEstablishment of a Special Purpose Company for Heavy Rare Earth Development in the Republic of Namibia and Investment by JOGMEC 7 Jul 2026CACanada Growth Fund and Teck strategic investment framework for Trail strategic metals expansion 21 May 2026USEXIM final approval of project finance for the Stibnite Gold Project 19 May 2026JPCertification of Shin-Etsu Chemical's critical-minerals supply-assurance plan for rare earths under the Economic Security Promotion Act

Sources (2)

Delivering Australia's critical minerals supply

Primary source

Department of Industry, Science and Resources (Australia)

OfficialenAccessed 13 Jun 2026

Australian government statement on the Critical Minerals Strategic Reserve.

Open original document ↗

https://www.minister.industry.gov.au/ministers/king/media-releases/delivering-australias-critical-minerals-supply

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