Critical minerals are rapidly becoming a fixture of headlines, government policy and business discussions. But what makes a mineral “critical”?
According to Geoscience Australia, a critical mineral is an element essential to modern technologies, economies or national security, where its supply chain is also vulnerable to disruption.
That combination is reshaping the role of Australia and New Zealand. As geopolitical tensions expose the fragility of global supply chains, both countries are increasingly positioned as trusted suppliers of minerals underpinning defence, critical infrastructure, data centres, renewable energy and advanced manufacturing.
Australia: A super producer rethinks its role
Australia is blessed with abundance. It’s a leading producer of lithium and cobalt and holds significant reserves of rare earths, gallium, antimony and other minerals essential to clean energy, defence, and high-technology manufacturing.
Yet, for all its mineral wealth, Australia admits it doesn’t have a well-developed capability for processing or adding value to these raw materials.
Australia’s role has historically been weighted toward upstream extraction, with much of the downstream processing concentrated offshore. That equation is now changing. Policymakers are seeking to close processing gaps, reduce exposure to concentrated international bottlenecks, and position Australia as a trusted supplier within allied trade networks.
The federal government’s multiyear push has accelerated:
- The A$1.2bn Critical Minerals Strategic Reserve, announced in 2025 and planned for operation in late 2026, signals a pivot toward strategic stockpiling, price support mechanisms and sovereign capability, support mechanisms and sovereign capability.
- The updated Critical Minerals Strategy 2023–2030 and refreshed national list reinforce the priority placed on supply chain resilience and energy transition inputs, chain resilience and energy transition inputs.
These moves signal strongly that Australia aims to be investment-ready, processing-enabled, and geopolitically aligned.
But that ambition brings new operational, technological, and resilience challenges as projects scale.
New Zealand: A sector coming into focus
Across the Tasman, New Zealand’s critical minerals sector is smaller than Australia’s, but its strategic importance is growing quickly.
In early 2025, the government launched a national Minerals Strategy and a Critical Minerals List identifying 37 minerals essential to the economy, including newly elevated additions such as gold and metallurgical coal. It signals a clear shift toward expanding mining as an economic contributor, with an ambition to double mineral exports to NZ$3 billion by 2035.
Rather than competing on scale, New Zealand is positioning itself as a trusted, rules-based supplier of select minerals into global value chains.
Minerals are typically designated as critical when supply chains are exposed to disruption, particularly where processing and refining capacity is concentrated in a few locations.
New Zealand’s emphasis on regulatory certainty and sustainability directly addresses this vulnerability.
What this means for leaders
For leaders across mining, energy and infrastructure, critical minerals are about more than geology. Projects are increasingly technically complex, capital intensive and subject to tighter development timelines, regulatory scrutiny and investor expectations.
Supply-chain dependencies can increase as projects rely on specialist equipment, reagents and digital systems. Automation and connected operational technology introduce new cyber-physical risks, while natural hazards, permitting challenges and physical security can affect project delivery.
At the same time, investors and stakeholders increasingly expect credible approaches to resilience, sustainability and business continuity.
Resilience therefore needs to be considered from the outset. Early industrial control system cyber assessments, integrated physical and digital risk reviews, and engineering-led loss prevention can help reduce disruption as assets move from construction into operation.
FM’s experience supporting large-scale mining and critical mineral processing developments across the region demonstrates the value of treating physical, digital and supply-chain resilience as foundational design considerations.
As demand accelerates, geological opportunity alone will not determine success. For Australia and New Zealand, the opportunity extends beyond extracting critical minerals to building the resilient infrastructure, technology and governance needed to turn mineral wealth into reliable, long-term value.
FM is a leading commercial property insurance company. FM helps clients prevent business disruption by safeguarding their properties with seamless, worldwide coverage and property loss prevention engineering solutions. Visit the website to learn more.
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