Why US is backing Australia's $400 million scandium project to challenge China's mineral grip - The Times of India
This article reports a concrete strategic-decoupling initiative: US financial backing for an Australian scandium project explicitly designed to reduce China's dominance in a critical rare-earth supply chain. Scandium is used in aerospace and defence applications, making supply security directly relevant to Australian defence-industrial autonomy and Pillar 1 (Resource Sovereignty). The US commitment to co-fund the project signals allied confidence in Australia's role as a decoupled critical-minerals producer, strengthening both Pillar 5 (Decoupling) and the resource-capture metric.
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