Australian Strategic Materials (ASM) Managing Director and CEO Rowena Smith joined a panel of international supply chain and policy experts at the 2025 U.S. Export-Import Bank (EXIM) Annual Conference, contributing to a critical discussion on building resilient supply chains for rare earths and critical minerals.
The panel, titled “Resilient Supply Chains for Critical Minerals: Enhancing U.S. Competitiveness,” explored how EXIM’s Supply Chain Resiliency Initiative is helping to reduce reliance on critical mineral imports from the People’s Republic of China, while promoting new international partnerships and supporting U.S. job opportunities.
During the session, Rowena emphasised the importance of leveraging complementary strengths across jurisdictions to build alternative supply chains efficiently and at scale.
“I can argue very strongly for Australia’s rich endowment and deep capability in mining and general processing. What Australia doesn’t have strength in is manufacturing, and it doesn’t have a large consumer in the market. And so what I would argue Australia has done well over time, is that it has worked with allies to create cross-jurisdictional additional supply chains that leverage the strength of each partner,” she said.
She also underscored the need for a coordinated, multi-layered approach:
“It’s not just company to company, it’s not just across the supply chain, it is across jurisdiction, it is government to government, it is private with government. All of that has to work in order for this supply chain to get up rapidly. But if we do actually think really carefully about where the strengths are already established so that we can leverage those, that’s how we will do it more rapidly, so that we don’t have each jurisdiction trying to do it alone or doing it from a blank page.”
I think there’s been an enormous amount of talk and not enough action. And I think we’ve got an opportunity. It is real, it is present.
Rowena Smith, Managing diRECTOR & ceo
Finally, Rowena called for action over continued discussion:
“I think there’s been an enormous amount of talk and not enough action. And I think we’ve got an opportunity. It is real, it is present. If we work together, if we leverage strength, if we focus on the opportunities that are already most advanced, we will be able to very rapidly establish an alternative supply chain that can then grow, but we have to act.”
ASM’s participation reflects its active role in global conversations on critical mineral security, supply chain resilience, and international collaboration. ASM continues to engage with strategic and government partners as it advances its vertically integrated rare earths business — including the Korean Metals Plant, the Dubbo Project in New South Wales, and plans for a U.S.-based metals facility.
In March 2024, ASM received a conditional Letter of Interest (LoI) from EXIM to provide a debt funding package of up to US$600 million for the construction phase of the Dubbo Project. Learn more, here.