Will the US ever mine Australian rare earths?

How economically sustainable is Australian rare earth mining? An examination of Thorium extraction

The Labor Party government and the Greens are staunchly opposed to nuclear reactors being built in Australia to provide affordable electricity.

While uranium is being mined and exported to trading partners, Labor is dismantling coal-fired electricity and uranium is not allowed to fuel any future reactors for electricity generation.

Labor has wasted billions on subsidising Chinese-supplied wind generators and solar panels for an intermittent and expensive electricity supply, but serious, non-government investment has been disappearing as fast as PM Albanese from a synagogue dinner.

The renewables fantasy is all but over.

In 2025 PM Albanese struck a deal with US President Donald Trump to access Australia’s critical minerals. However existing laws and regulations prevent mining of elements such as Thorium.

How the US or local miners will legally and economically extract our rare earth is yet to be determined but protocols for developing a new mine are so excessive that the US surely will realise no new miner can comply with the most restrictive mining regulations in the world.

Unattainable, unsustainable and ridiculous environmental regulations, punitive taxation and royalties, toughest industrial relations laws in the world, health and safety regulations making it too safe to operate, unreliable and highest electricity costs in the world and excessive fuel costs would turn away any new venture.

If Queensland’s NW Mining Province were to be opened for mining of rare earths any miner would have to seriously examine the third-world road and rail network, no available, affordable electricity supply, insufficient surface water supplies and no housing or accommodation.

Economically, other than iron ore, new Australian mining ventures remain a pipe dream of the political class.

A focus on Thorium for energy, supply chain and advanced nuclear capability

By Adam Orlando, Mining.com.au

Thorium is not a near-term production commodity, but is increasingly relevant to Australia’s long-range defence and energy security planning. Abundant domestically and commonly hosted within rare earth mineral systems, thorium represents a strategic resource whose value lies in optionality rather than immediacy. 

As digital oversight, nuclear innovation, and geopolitical uncertainty converge, thorium’s role shifts from geological curiosity to latent national asset.

Mining.com.au previously reported thorium is similar to uranium and can be used as a source of nuclear power with consensus there’s probably more energy available from thorium than from both uranium and fossil fuels. 

In a strategic context, thorium is emerging in defence planning through three intersecting lenses – energy security, supply chain sovereignty, and advanced nuclear capability.

In this report, Mining.com.au outlines why thorium warrants attention within defence-adjacent mining policy, how digital technologies reshape its viability, and what strategic signals to monitor between now and 2030.

No longer flying under the radar

Military and defence spending is rising across the world, which is leading to more demand for metals and minerals crucial to the sector from antimony to rare earths to thorium and uranium. 

World Population Review reports America leads the world in military and defence spending at about $970 billion, ahead of China ($320 billion), Russia ($150 billion), and Germany ($86 billion). Australia ($33 billion) and Canada ($29 billion) are way down the list.

Unlike uranium, thorium is not currently embedded in Australia’s nuclear fuel cycle. However, its abundance (three times more abundant than uranium and about the same as lead), distribution and byproduct nature within rare earths systems offer Australia a potential future advantage should alternative nuclear technologies mature and longstanding policies change.

Analysis from the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) shows that critical minerals cooperation, including nuclear fuel inputs, offers a way for the allied partners of Western nations to find common ground and bolster defence supply chains. 

Although thorium itself is not singled out, the report stresses the defence sector’s growing reliance on strategic mineral security as part of broader geopolitical competition. 

From a defence perspective, thorium offers strategic optionality. Advanced reactor concepts, particularly those designed for long-duration, low-maintenance power, are often discussed in the context of remote installations, hardened infrastructure and future naval or industrial systems. 

While these technologies are not yet commercial-ready, thorium’s presence especially within Australia’s resource base positions the country to not be structurally excluded from future pathways.

In October 2025, the Government of Canada announced the launch of the Critical Minerals Production Alliance with allied partners – a C$6.4 billion initiative to accelerate critical minerals supply chains crucial for defence, clean energy, and advanced manufacturing. 

Minister Tim Hodgson says the measures will “accelerate and unlock” projects vital to strengthening national and allied security interests. While not solely about thorium, this reflects how critical minerals policy – including uranium and potentially byproduct thorium – is being integrated into defence industrial strategies. 

Organisations from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to the Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA) to the World Nuclear Association point out in terms of defence, there’s no readiness to mine thorium tomorrow, but there should be readiness to respond if demand emerges and technology advances.

Thorium in Australia does not typically occur as a primary target. It is most often found in monazite-bearing rare earth deposits, alongside zircon and titanium minerals.

As global tensions rise and a potentially irreversible fracturing of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) emerges, this aspect could become important for defence strategy as it reduces standalone project risk, enables thorium to be extracted within existing or future critical-minerals supply chains, and avoids the need for a dedicated thorium mining industry.

A November 2022 report by law firm Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer notes that Australia has leveraged existing trade relationships with America, India, and Japan (formalised under the recently signed Critical Minerals Partnership), establishing commitments towards building secure critical minerals supply chains between Australia and each relevant economy. 

The firm reports that using these partnerships, Australia can garner investment in collaborative ventures in the critical minerals industry, from research and development and pilot studies through to commercial projects. 

“These international agreements help Australia to solidify trade pathways for critical minerals demand and its reputation as a reliable supplier of resources to the world,” the firm says.

“The growing global demand for critical minerals, coupled with Australia’s significant demonstrated reserves and commitment from the Australian Government places Australian mining companies in a position to benefit from investing in critical mineral exploration.”

There are commercial opportunities available to repurpose existing exploration and mining operations to take advantage of existing infrastructure and supply chains, including co-production of critical minerals occurring at existing sites; establishing new processing and extraction facilities on existing sites; post-production extraction of metals, such as deriving metals from mine waste (tailings extraction); and mine closure and rehabilitation planning, Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer continues.

To ensure that any benefits earned from critical minerals exploration and processing activities are not offset by the material geological, political, trade, and investment risks associated with critical minerals, sharing of risk allocation can be achieved by utilising collaborative contracting structures.

From a strategic resilience standpoint, co-production would allow thorium to “ride along” with commodities already recognised as defence-critical, particularly rare earths used in electronics, guidance systems and advanced manufacturing.

From Geoscience Australia

Significant uranium mining has not occurred in Queensland since 1982 due to a ban by the Queensland Government. However, exploration for uranium is still allowed.

There is no production of thorium in Australia but it is present in monazite being mined with other minerals in heavy mineral beach sand deposits. The heavy sands recovered are processed to separate these heavy minerals, and the light fraction is returned to the deposit. In current heavy mineral sand operations, the monazite fraction is returned to mine site and dispersed to reduce radiation as stipulated in mining conditions. Stream sediments, alluvial terraces, beach sediments, beach terraces, and shallow water sediments have all been mined for heavy minerals.

Thorium-bearing monazite extracted from mineral sands is usually mixed with a variety of other minerals, including silica, magnetite, ilmenite, zircon, and garnet. The first stage of concentrating the monazite is to wash out lighter minerals by placing the sand on shaking tables and passing the resulting monazite fraction through a series of electromagnetic separators.

To separate thorium from the other elements in monazite, the mineral is ground into a powder and mixed with hot concentrated sulphuric acid or sodium hydroxide solutions. The residue that is left contains 99% of the thorium and 5% of the other elements (mostly rare earths). An alternative processing method involves converting the thorium in monazite, thorite, or other minerals to thorium dioxide (ThO₂). This is then heated with calcium, sodium or magnesium. The compound produced is mixed with dilute nitric acid and then washed with water, alcohol, and ether. This produces a metal powder which can be compacted to form 99.7% pure thorium metal. Further processing can produce thorium metal that is 99.97% pure.