{"id":446384,"date":"2026-01-30T02:14:18","date_gmt":"2026-01-30T02:14:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/446384\/"},"modified":"2026-01-30T02:14:18","modified_gmt":"2026-01-30T02:14:18","slug":"rare-earths-mine-at-centre-of-trump-albanese-deal-yet-to-materialise-after-years-in-the-making","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/446384\/","title":{"rendered":"Rare earths mine at centre of Trump-Albanese deal yet to materialise after years in the making"},"content":{"rendered":"

It is the Central Australian mine promised to help upset China’s dominance of the global rare earths market, and bring hundreds of jobs to the Northern Territory.<\/p>\n

Arafura’s Nolans Rare Earths Project was listed as a priority in a multi-billion dollar critical minerals deal<\/a> inked between Donald Trump and Anthony Albanese in Washington last year.<\/p>\n

The Nolans Project has also received backing from Australia’s richest woman<\/a>, Gina Rinehart.<\/p>\n

\"an<\/p>\n

Accommodation for workers has been established at the project site, but the Arafura Rare Earths mine is yet to materialise. (Supplied: Arafura Rare Earths)<\/p>\n

But 20 years after it was first floated as a prospect, and after receiving hundreds of millions of dollars in taxpayer funding<\/a>, the project appears to be delayed once again.<\/p>\n

Arafura Rare Earths released its quarterly report on Thursday, which showed the company was still vague on exactly when it might hit its golden milestone of final investment.<\/p>\n

Late last year, following the deal with the United States, the company’s heads told media they were hopeful of reaching a final investment decision by the first quarter of 2026.<\/p>\n

\"Gina<\/p>\n

Gina Rinehart’s company Hancock owns a 10 per cent stake in Arafura Rare Earths. (AAP: Richard Wainwright)<\/p>\n

In this week’s quarterly report, the firm said it was now awaiting confirmation of further investment from the German government, and has pushed its timeline out.<\/p>\n

Arafura had previously said a final investment decision had been expected early in 2025.<\/p>\n

Shareholder nerves over delays<\/p>\n

Arafura has not committed to an exact timeline for a start date, but said in a statement to the ABC there was still a decision “targeted for the first half of the calendar 2026”.<\/p>\n

Why this multi-million-dollar project is powering ahead<\/a><\/p>\n

As the major parties make their final pitches ahead of the NT election, both say they have the answers to turn around the territory’s stagnant economy.<\/p>\n

At an investor meeting yesterday, one shareholder asked: “How do you expect to reassure shareholders that this project will succeed due to constant delays?”<\/p>\n

In response, Arafura managing director Darryl Cuzzubbo said, “90 per cent of that funding is committed, or subject to final approval.<\/p>\n

“We are doing everything in our power to accelerate negotiations with cornerstone investors and efficiently navigate new and complex government equity programs, to deliver a fully-funded project, as soon as possible.<\/p>\n

“The parties we are dealing with prioritise diligence and process, which serves to reinforce the project fundamentals that will deliver long-term value.<\/p>\n

“By a similar token, we need to ensure that the solution that we put in place is on the best possible terms for our shareholders, and we are focusing on certainty over speed.”\"A<\/p>\n

Darryl Cuzzubbo assured stakeholders the majority of funding has already been secured. (AAP: Dominic Giannini)<\/p>\n

Government accepts complexity of project<\/p>\n

Arafura has also pledged the project, to be based north of Alice Springs<\/a>, will bring hundreds of jobs to the territory.<\/p>\n

In response to the latest quarterly report, NT Mining Minister Gerard Maley said the government looked forward to seeing progress from the company.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Gerard Maley is looking forward to seeing the project progress. (ABC News: Pete Garnish)<\/p>\n

“Projects of this scale and strategic importance involve complex and time-consuming financing processes,” he said.<\/p>\n

“[These are] ultimately commercial matters for Arafura, but we look forward to their progress.”<\/p>\n

Australian Strategic Policy Institute senior fellow Ian Satchwell said the company’s announcement it had not yet reached the final investment decision should be no surprise.<\/p>\n

\"Man<\/p>\n

Ian Satchwell says he’s confident the project will proceed. (ABC News: Glyn Jones)<\/p>\n

“I think that everybody, including the principals at Arafura Rare Earths, would’ve liked this project to get a go ahead sooner than 2026,” he said.<\/p>\n

“But when you’re dealing with a market that’s quite volatile, where prices are being manipulated to hold out competition, and where you’re trying to line up financial institutions with loans, plus equity investment \u2026 it’s complicated.<\/p>\n

“I’m very confident that this project, when it gets a final investment decision, will proceed, and hopefully will be very successful.”<\/p>\n

Federal Resources Minister Madeleine King declined to comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It is the Central Australian mine promised to help upset China’s dominance of the global rare earths market,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":421486,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[2324,139381,231439,231440,139511,64,63,99,231441,8268,7136,2893,2490,60501,6827,231438,8261],"class_list":["post-446384","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-anthony-albanese","tag-arafura","tag-arafura-mine","tag-arafura-rare-earths","tag-arafura-rare-earths-nolans","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-business","tag-critical-mineral-mine","tag-critical-minerals","tag-deal","tag-delay","tag-donald-trump","tag-gina-rinehart","tag-mining","tag-nolans","tag-rare-earths"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/446384","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=446384"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/446384\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/421486"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=446384"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=446384"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=446384"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}