Deepening Australia-India Cooperation on Critical Minerals
'Deepening Australia-India Cooperation on Critical Minerals' playbook addresses the geopolitical, economic and sustainability imperatives which drive critical minerals policy, and seeks to provide recommendations for government, industry and academia on how Australia and India can stitch a mutually beneficial critical minerals cooperation. ​​​The playbook is a result of research undertaken over six months, including in-depth interviews in Australia and India with government officials, businesses and research groups working on critical minerals, and civil society.
Launched by the
Australian High Commissioner
H.E. Phillip Green OAM
at the Australian High Commission, New Delhi.
A 360° Playbook for Policymakers
Security and Geopolitics
Economics and Markets
Climate and Sustainability
Rising demand, coupled with high supply chain concentration and geopolitical risk, have made critical minerals a strategic priority for countries worldwide. Major powers including the United States, the European Union, Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom, and India have launched critical minerals strategies to forecast demand, address supply chain risks, and tackle security and geopolitical challenges across short, medium, and long-term horizons. Along with increasing domestic reserves, governments are seeking international cooperation to secure and diversify supply chains and build trusted partnerships.
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India is Australia’s fifth-largest trading partner, with two-way trade in goods and services reaching $49.1 billion in 2023. The 2020 Economic Cooperation and Trade Agreement (ECTA) has set a trade target of $100 billion by 2030. The New Roadmap for Australia’s Economic Engagement with India seeks to bolster critical minerals cooperation, proposing a slew of initiatives aimed at strengthening supply chains, adding export value, increasing investment pipelines, and co-developing mining and processing technology. ​​
Critical minerals offer significant economic and geopolitical benefits to Australia, given its leadership in mining and large resource endowments of minerals. India’s rapid urbanisation, focus on pushing domestic manufacturing through initiatives such as Atmanirbhar Bharat and Make in India, plus a target of achieving net zero emissions by 2070, makes it a large market for minerals. ​​Australia and India have already inked pacts to deepen research and strategic cooperation on critical minerals, including mechanisms to jointly invest in projects.
​​While policy mechanisms between the two countries are in place, the complexity accompanying critical minerals policy and its current siloed approach remain challenging. To address this concern, this playbook aims to take a holistic view across three themes necessary for policymakers in both countries: Security and Geopolitics, Economics and Markets, and Climate and Sustainability.
About the Project
This project is part of a six-month Maitri fellowship (2023-2024) at the ANU Tech Policy Design Centre to explore Australian-Indian cooperation in critical minerals. This project seeks to create a playbook for Australian and Indian policymakers placed across levels and portfolios of government, offering them a big-picture view of the critical minerals opportunity and challenges, keeping the Australia-India partnership as the central vein. The research undertaken for this project includes in-depth interviews with experts across Australian and Indian governments, industry stakeholders, companies, academics and research organisations, and collaborations built across the two nations. These insights are supplemented by bringing a multi-disciplinary and cross-sectional lens to the critical minerals conundrum, to create value for practitioners placed across stakeholder groups. Key outputs will be the playbook, as well as policy recommendations for Australian and Indian stakeholders, to leverage this partnership for success in a strategically important sector.
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Project Lead:
Titiksha Vashist