During an earnings call to investors, one of Australia’s richest men, lithium and iron ore magnate Chris Ellison says China cannot be trusted and his company will focus on deals with Europe and North America moving forward.

The founder and boss of Mineral Resources said his company would move to supply lithium and upstream processing to feed US and Europeans in future.

“When Australia is trading with China and Australia doesn’t go along with some of the social decisions that are made in China, then they go and ban our coal, they ban our wine … they ban a whole bunch of stuff,” Mr Ellison said. 

“The risk for Australians in China is high, and we don’t want to trap money in China.”

The new focus for MinRes, one of the biggest lithium miners in the world, would be to take out a lot of waste material in the lithium spodumene concentrate it currently exports and ship that elsewhere.

“Our intention is we’re going to send that directly into Europe and the US, we’re well advanced on discussions around that. And we want to have long-term contracts direct with manufacturers. And we’re advanced on those discussions,” Mr Ellison said.

MinRes would still ship spodumene to China under existing deals.

The billionaire’s company operates the massive Mount Marion lithium mine in Western Australia in a long-term partnership with China’s Gangfeng company.

MinRes also ships significant iron ore to China for steel making.

Angry at Lithium Analysts

Mr Ellison also rubbished claims by some analysts concerned about his lithium strategy.

He called negative reports “total rubbish” and “bullshit,” according to those on the call and subsequent reporting.

More from the AFR and MiningNews.net