The deal aims to strengthen their battery supply chains, by reducing dependence on China, and help Japanese carmakers access to a new tax credit for electric vehicles in the US.

Australia accounts for nearly half of the world's lithium supply and is ideally positioned to reap the benefits from the booming battery sector, if it acts fast

A Japanese trade mission including public officials and private representatives of 16 battery industry firms were in Canada last week

The block of the key electric vehicle battery metal in Jammu and Kashmir is the first known reserve found in the country

IEA data highlights China's key role in making photovoltaic wafers, cells and modules for solar panels, plus blades, towers and nacelles (turbine units) for wind-power generation

Ottawa has told 3 Chinese firms to sell investments in Canadian companies focused on critical minerals – on grounds of national security

Japanese PM Fumio Kishida said the two nations had been working to achieve a free and open Indo-Pacific under "an increasingly severe strategic environment"

A US-led group met with African nations recently to bolster supply chains needed for the clean energy transition in a bid to "challenge Chinese dominance" in critical minerals

The climate law passed by the US aims to localize the manufacturing of EVs but "adds a steep requirement aimed at weeding out 'foreign entities of concern' from supply chains", it says.

Rare earth mines surged from a small number to "more than 2,700 mining collection pools at almost 300 separate locations over an area the size of Singapore," Global Witness reported.

US Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm said she was worried that a future conflict could undermine access to natural resources in the way that the Russia-Ukraine war has hit oil and gas

Gotion said it would build total battery production capacity of 300 gigawatt hours (GWh) over three years against the 16 GWh it produced in 2021. It plans to have a third of that output overseas