Australia has ordered six China-linked shareholders to divest their stakes in Northern Minerals Ltd., the second forced sell-down of Chinese investment in the rare earths company since 2024.
Treasurer Jim Chalmers issued the disposal orders on Monday, giving the six entities two weeks to sell a combined stake of nearly 27% in the Perth-based miner. “We operate a robust and non-discriminatory foreign investment framework and will take further action if required to protect our national interest in relation to this matter,” Chalmers said in a statement.
The company has a market capitalization of approximately A$229 million ($163 million). Of the six, five hold registrations in China or Hong Kong; the remaining entity is registered in the British Virgin Islands.
The ASX suspended Northern Minerals trading when markets opened on Monday. Shares dropped more than 6% before paring losses.
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The named entities include Beijing-based Vastness Investment Group, which holds approximately 7% of the company and attempted earlier this year to replace Northern Minerals’ chairman before withdrawing the bid. Qogir Trading and Service Company, registered in Hong Kong, accounts for close to 5%.
The 2024 intervention targeted a separate group of five China-linked investors and ended in court — Canberra sued one company for non-compliance and won. But the case didn’t close cleanly. The FIRB wrote to Northern Minerals after determining that at least three shareholders covered by the 2024 order had sidestepped the directive — routing their positions to Hong Kong Ying Tak Ltd., one of Monday’s six named entities, rather than selling on the open market.
Canberra had already won a court case against a Chinese company that breached the 2024 directive; last month, the Treasury flagged renewed compliance concerns.
Northern Minerals referred itself to the FIRB in November 2025. Non-compliance with Monday’s orders carries escalating consequences under the Foreign Acquisitions and Takeovers Act — civil proceedings, criminal liability for persistent breach, and compulsory government acquisition as a last resort.
The Browns Range project’s primary targets are dysprosium and terbium — heavy rare earth elements whose near-total production sits in China and whose scarcity in Western supply chains makes them strategically significant. Both feed into the permanent magnets that electric vehicles, wind turbines, and advanced weapons systems depend on. Beijing controls the overwhelming share of global rare earth production and has wielded export restrictions on these materials as leverage in its trade confrontation with the US.
In October last year, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and President Donald Trump signed the US–Australia Framework for Securing Supply in the Mining and Processing of Critical Minerals and Rare Earths, committing both governments to “protecting domestic markets from nonmarket policies” and authorizing diplomatic and regulatory tools to block critical mineral sales on national security grounds.
Northern Minerals was among seven Australian companies to receive a Letter of Interest from the US Export-Import Bank under the framework, part of an initial $2.2 billion financing package. Combined Australia-US funding commitments have since exceeded $5 billion.
Northern Minerals said it was “currently considering the new disposal orders” and would update the market in due course.
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