Sharon Brett-Kelley

One Australian mining executive described them as an EV battery in a rock.

Let's look at New Zealand's own critical minerals list.

There's 37 on it.

We've talked about gold, but also coal is on it.

And that's not a mineral.

And neither is gold, as you've said.

But the coal, why?

From actor Daniel Radcliffe's version of The Elements, a few in that short clip are on New Zealand's critical minerals list, like platinum and magnesium.

The list was drawn up last year alongside a goal to double the value of our minerals exports to $3 billion by 2035.

And that's where a potential NZ-US deal comes in.

The US is pushing hard for these deals to tackle China's dominance of the market.

New Zealand Herald chief political reporter Jamie Ensor's been digging into it.

It's been bubbling away for several months, but most of us wouldn't have even known until earlier this year.

You got a lot of documents through the Official Information Act.

And from that, you have pieced together the series of events around these US-New Zealand talks on critical minerals.

Tell me about that and the information that you were told or asked by MBIE to destroy.

How unusual is it to be sent information under the OIA and then for a ministry to come back to you and say destroy that?

So you've got that information?

Did you consider publishing it at all?

What is the security factor?