Australia’s richest person Gina Rinehart will lift her stake in Arafura Rare Earths Ltd. as part of a A$375 million ($268 million) capital raising plan.

Jim Chalmers’ changes to the capital gains tax could have an even bigger impact on the sector than his mentor Wayne Swan’s controversial resources super profits tax, mining executives warn, and could imperil the future of arguably the most important arm of the Australian economy.

The decision by Arafura Rare Earths to proceed to Final Investment Decision (FID) on the Nolans Project in the Northern Territory shows how recent reforms to the Strategic Reserve and Export Finance Australia (EFA) are translating policy into practical outcomes, supporting investment in strategically important and commercially complex critical minerals markets.

The global fuel shock has become a “massive wake-up call” for Australia to undertake an urgent change to stop soaring energy prices.

Foreign investors will be further scared off Australian mining and energy — pushing up power prices and crippling the nascent critical minerals industry — by a retrospective change to capital gains tax rules.

The climate catastrophe balloon is losing altitude but COP co-president Chris Bowen obviously has yet to get the message. As energy price pressures continue at home, Mr Bowen has set up a modestly titled “office of the presidency” inside his Climate Change and Energy Department for his additional responsibilities in Turkey for this year’s COP31 UN climate conference.