Alcoa, Arafura pop as first Oz winners benefiting from Albo-Trump US critical minerals deal

Alcoa Corporation (ASX:AAI) and Arafura Rare Earths (ASX:ARU) have quickly emerged on Tuesday as the first big winners of Albanese and Trump’s US$8.5 billion framework agreement on critical minerals and rare earths.

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Each Australian company was named in the deal that will see both nations slash red tape and fast-track approval timelines for rare earths works.

“President Trump and I agreed today we will work very hard together in both our nations’ interests,” Albo declared this morning after the long-awaited Washington meeting. “We’ve agreed today Australia and America are going to make more things together with our historic framework on critical minerals.”

Good news for those in the space, of course – ARU shares have already gained +15% today, to around 55cps; quite the big jump for a $1.63 billion blue-chip. AAI, meanwhile, has advanced by as much as +8%, to $60.01/share.

The rare earths pair have very quickly become the best two performers on the ASX on Tuesday, according to live data sourced from ADVFN.com up to midday.

Each immediately rocketed to top billing on the HotCopper forums’ most-discussed lists, too. (I’ll have more on that in my Trends column after lunch.)

Much of the excitement comes from just how much will be injected into future development. Arafura is the perfect example: The rare earths junior is set to bank US$100M to upgrade its Nolans project in the Northern Territory.

Alcoa is much the same; a chunk of the $2B the Australian gov’t will soon wield will go straight into the producer’s plans to build a Western Australian gallium plant. Alcoa already boasts an alumina refinery in the state.

Alcoa, based in the U.S., is also listed on the NYSE. There, it’s up +8.4%.

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