Given Labor is about to announce the details of its critical minerals reserve policy and it’s come up in the Trump tariff discussion, this update from AAP might be of interest:

Ukraine and the United States have made “substantial progress” in their talks on a minerals deal and will sign a memorandum in the near future, Kyiv says.

US President Donald Trump is seeking a bilateral minerals deal as part of his push to end Ukraine’s war against the Russian invasion. Trump also sees it as a way to recover billions of dollars the US has spent on military assistance to Ukraine. President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has said that Ukraine would not recognise past US military aid as loans.

“Our technical teams have worked very thoroughly together on the agreement, and there is significant progress. Our legal staff has adjusted several items within the draft agreement,” First Deputy Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko said on Wednesday on X.