This gives even more impetus to a possible critical minerals deal between the US and Australia on the 20th October. While Trump has threatened via his Truth Social platform to retaliate against this move from China with his own tariffs, as we’ve seen previously, China has a much higher tolerance for such countermeasures than the American electorate & Trump had to retreat multiple times from this hardline stance. It would be much more sensible if he just directed that focus and energy into continuing to build out an Ex-China domestic supply chain for critical minerals. Matt Fernley had a great social media post that MPK shared on HC calling out graphite and particularly the downstream anode IP as the key strategic vulnerability and only a few companies who can capably step in, Talga being the first highlighted.
With the developments of the last 48 hours, it is hard to conceive of a scenario that played into Talga’s hands any better.
Of the miniscule number of ex-China anode producers, how many of these would have had the foresight to design the flow sheet plant to use exclusively non-Chinese equipment?
The untethering of ex-Chinese anode pricing from Chinese is now beyond any doubt imo.
And then there’s this…
MT in Washington DC after a stop to South Carolina (where United Catalyst Corporation headquarters is located).
And you don’t go to DC to visit car plants or battery manufacturers. DC is however home to the Department of Energy (DOE), Department of Defense (DoD), and Department of Commerce (DoC), all of which are running major grant and investment programs.
And this should put him in DC around 20th October.
Coincidence or not, the ducks are lining up.