https://www.news.com.au/finance/business/mining/two-countries-com...

https://www.news.com.au/finance/bus...s/news-story/747de77929f19dc9aa93775155e3aa86

A few excerpts from the article.

"The Middle East’s mega-rich oil kingdoms can see the writing on the wall. The time of big oil is over. The future is all about critical minerals. And they’ve got the money to leave Australia’s ambitions in the dust.

After years of influencing the global economy through the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), the Middle Eastern oil powers are beginning to follow China’s lead in a bid to secure control over critical minerals.
Decades of investment have given Beijing a commanding lead in the technologies needed to sort and smelt these minerals economically. And Chairman Xi Jinping’s “Belt and Road” economic initiative has secured access to many of the world’s leading suppliers in South America and Africa.
The upshot is China dominates the processing of these resources.
It accounts for 63 per cent of the world’s supply of rare earth elements alone. And only five of the world’s rare earth refineries are not under Beijing’s control.
But the IEA, mineral production must increase six-fold by 2040 to meet demand driven by the transition to an all-electric economy.

And the UAE and Saudi Arabia want a slice of the action.
Both are diverting oil profits towards investments in critical mineral mines and supply chains in a bid to buy out a commanding stake in the growing industry.
“Saudi Arabia is being transformed. Through this transformation, we want to be an economic powerhouse,” Saudi Arabia’s vice minister for mining, Khalid al-Mudaifer, told Semafor. “To be an industrial power, we need minerals. To build projects, we need minerals. Therefore, mining in Saudi Arabia is the first step. Bringing minerals from outside is the second step. Third step is to build Saudi Arabia as a hub.”
Neither Saudi Arabia or the UAE are home to known significant critical mineral reserves.

“Saudi Arabia is not sensitive to short-term price signals,” says Baskaran. “So while global mining exploration and activity has contracted, Saudi Arabia has scaled up its overseas investments.”
Riyadh is also mostly buying up substantial stakes in existing projects.
“Saudi Arabia’s equity stake approach eliminates the burden of exploring, permitting, building, and operating a mine. Instead, it lets the kingdom go straight to securing supply,” Baskaran explains.
The UAE is also actively buying up its stakehold.
It has moved to secure access to copper through a $US 1.9 billion partnership with Congo. Similar talks with Zambia are advancing.

But Australia’s not entirely being left out in the cold.
Abu Dhabi is in talks with Canberra over a free-trade agreement that could open the door for the UAE to make commanding investments in Australia’s critical minerals sector."