In the US-China battle for critical minerals, where will Australia stand?

When Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese discussed trade issues with US President Donald Trump earlier this week, the call quickly sparked the concern of another key partner: China.

Australia holds huge reserves of critical minerals coveted by both Beijing and Washington. And as tensions between the two powers rise, Canberra is increasingly getting stuck in the middle.

But China, too, has massive investments in the Oceanic nation and has been working in recent years to restore economic ties with Australia that were disrupted during the administration of Scott Morrison, the hawkish former prime minister.

For Beijing, there is a persistent worry that Chinese companies could find themselves shut out of the Australian market as business and economic matters increasingly become entangled with security issues.

And those concerns intensified on Tuesday, after Albanese and Trump spoke about the possibility of the US granting Australia an exemption to its newly announced 25 per cent tariffs on imports of steel and aluminium.