Australia’s 2026–27 Federal Budget has positioned critical minerals as a supply chain security priority, with the Government moving beyond broad industry support and into more direct intervention through stockpiling, price support, approvals reform and strategic project financing.
The centrepiece is a new critical minerals package built around the Critical Minerals Strategic Reserve. Under Budget Paper one, statement one: budget overview, the government said the reserve will initially focus on antimony, gallium and rare earth elements, all of which it described as crucial to clean energy, high-technology manufacturing and advanced military equipment.
The reserve will draw on $1 billion from the $5 billion Critical Minerals Facility, while the government is also providing $150 million for selective stockpiling, $20.4 million to support the reserve’s operation and $2.9 million to help deliver critical minerals agreements with international partners.
The measure is given further weight in the first paper, Statement 9: Statement of Risks, which confirms the Critical Minerals Facility was expanded by $1 billion at the 2025–26 Mid-Year Economic and Fiscal Outlook for the reserve, taking its maximum aggregate exposure to $5 billion.
The same section states the reserve can provide price support, as well as buy, sell, transport, and selectively stockpile minerals. As of February 28 2026, the government had agreed to provide about $3.1 billion to support five projects under the Critical Minerals Facility, with $714.7 million outstanding.
For mining companies and project developers, the Budget’s importance lies not only in the headline funding, but in Canberra treating critical minerals less as a conventional resources opportunity and more as a strategic capability tied to defence, technology, energy transition and allied supply chains.
That shift comes as Treasury forecasts a modest improvement in mining investment. In the first paper, Statement 2: Economic Outlook, mining investment is forecast to grow by 0.5 per cent in 2025–26 before growing by 1 per cent in 2026–27, supported by elevated global commodity prices and a pick-up in mineral exploration activity, “particularly in gold and critical minerals”.
However, the same outlook points to a more complicated operating environment. Treasury said supply chain disruptions linked to the Middle East conflict present a downside risk to business investment, noting that more than 80 per cent of all capital goods are imported.
It also highlighted sulphur and helium as critical inputs to metal processing and high-tech production chains, while warning that higher fuel prices could delay investment plans.
At the end of April, national average diesel prices had risen by more than 70 cents per litre since the outbreak of conflict, with diesel used widely across mining, transport, agriculture, construction and manufacturing.
The paper explained that this is why fuel security is one of the Budget’s more important indirect measures on mining. In the first paper’s overview, the government framed its response around a $14.8 billion Strengthening Australia’s Fuel Resilience package, including Export Finance Australia’s $7.5 billion Fuel and Fertiliser Security Facility, a $3.2 billion Australian Fuel Security Reserve, and a temporary reduction in fuel excise and excise-equivalent customs duties.
For mining, the paper outlined that this is less about consumer cost-of-living relief and more about protecting the industrial base from energy and logistics shocks.
Mine sites, contractors, haulage networks and processing operations remain exposed to diesel prices, freight costs and equipment supply chains, making fuel resilience a practical productivity issue as much as a national security measure.
Approvals reform forms the other major mining-relevant pillar. In Budget paper two, part two: Payment Measures – Boosting Productivity: Accelerating Approvals, the government will provide $105.9 million over four years from 2026–27 for the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water and the National Environmental Protection Agency to modernise environmental information, data and digital systems, including through artificial intelligence.
It will also provide $47.6 million over four years to progress bilateral agreements with states and territories, and $26.4 million over four years to develop new bioregional plans and strategic assessments in priority areas, including housing, critical minerals and renewable energy.
The approvals push is reinforced in Budget paper four, Establishing the new National Environmental Protection Agency, which says the government is investing more than $500 million over four years from 2026–27 to implement environmental law reforms enacted in December 2025 and support a growing pipeline of approval applications.
The same section says on-time decisions under the EPBC Act increased from 78 per cent in 2022–23 to 95 per cent in 2025–26.
The Budget, as a result, presents a more involved resource policy, seeking to de-risk critical minerals through financing and stockpiling, ease project development through approvals reform, and protect mining operations from fuel and supply chain volatility.
