Strategic NewsDon’t just secure critical minerals supply. Look for substitutes.
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Don’t just secure critical minerals supply. Look for substitutes.

ASPI The Strategist Institutional·2026-09-21TradeP1: Resource SovereigntyP3: Industrial BaseP5: Strategic Decoupling
Why it matters

The article advocates for material substitution as a formal third pillar of Australia's critical minerals strategy, complementing extraction and processing. This directly supports Pillar 1 (Resource Sovereignty) and Pillar 3 (Industrial Base) by reducing Australia's exposure to concentrated foreign (particularly Chinese) supply chains and enabling domestic advanced manufacturing.

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Pillar tags and the significance note are AI-classified (Claude) and human-curated. The platform's own preparedness scores never move on a single story without a separate human approval.

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Where this sits in the model

This development bears on 3 of the eight pillars of Australian preparedness — the overall picture right now is 5/100.

P1: Resource Sovereignty0/100P3: Industrial Base3/100P5: Strategic Decoupling0/100
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The Index

See how all eight pillars score: the Strategic Preparedness Index stands at 5/100.

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The bigger picture

One signal in a live tracker of Australia's preparedness.

Every story here is scored against eight pillars — defence, energy, industry, fiscal reform, alliances and more — companion to the book Unprepared: Australia in an Age of Chinese Power.

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