Held at the Sydney Environmental Institute and co-funded by the Australian Academy of Social Sciences and the Centre for International Security Studies, the critical minerals symposium brought together stakeholders from industry, civil society and government to better understand the challenges Australia faces in extracting critical minerals for the renewable energy transition. From labour shortages to community benefit agreements and environmental mitigation measures, stakeholders got a better sense of the drivers for critical minerals mining in terms of investment and market dynamics, and how we can situate Australia in a global political economy.