Australia Bans Export of Aluminium Ores, Alumina and Aluminium Hydroxide to Russia

Mechanism

Made under section 10 of the Autonomous Sanctions Regulations 2011, the Autonomous Sanctions (Export Sanctioned Goods--Russia) Designation 2022 listed aluminium ores (including bauxite), aluminium oxide (alumina) and aluminium hydroxide as "export sanctioned goods" for Russia, alongside separate schedule items for luxury goods and certain machinery. Once designated, supplying, selling, transferring or exporting the goods to Russia without a permit is prohibited under the Regulations' criminal offence provisions. The ban took effect 20 March 2022, a day after PM Scott Morrison's public announcement, and was registered on the Federal Register of Legislation on 7 April 2022.

Russia's aluminium industry -- dominated by Rusal -- relied on Australia for roughly a fifth of its alumina feedstock (via the Queensland Alumina and Gladstone refineries in which Rusal previously held stakes), making this one of the earliest resource-specific chokepoints imposed on Russia after the February 2022 invasion, alongside the EU/UK's parallel measures.

Downstream implications

• Rusal was forced to source replacement alumina from China, Kazakhstan and

Guinea (via Rusal's own Friguia refinery and Dian-Dian bauxite project), raising input costs and lead times.

• Reinforces the broader Western sanctions architecture on Russia's metals and

mining sector alongside subsequent EU/UK/US measures.

Open questions

• No amendments to the aluminium-specific schedule item identified as of

filing; the designation instrument has separately been amended for other goods categories (e.g. 2023, 2024) not covered here.