Atlas Copco has launched a next-generation electric submersible dewatering pump, the WEDA D95, incorporating state-of-the-art Wear Deflector technology.
The robust and reliable pump delivers a best-in-class performance over a longer lifetime than comparable pumps in heavily abrasive environments such as mining, tunnelling and construction, and enables operators to improve their sustainability and productivity.
WEDA D95 has a power rating of 37–43 kilowatts (kW) and is the latest pump in the WEDA D drainage range to feature the innovative Wear Deflector technology designed to minimise wear and provide consistent performance over a longer operating life.
Features such as a high chrome wear resistant impeller combined with solid-redirecting auxiliary vanes contribute towards its performance. The pump also features re-adjustable hydraulics which allow the pump to be simply realigned to compensate for any wear, thus prolonging its life.
All these elements have a significant positive impact on the overall operational productivity, meaning users can achieve a lower total cost of ownership.
“There are often many suspended solids in harsh applications which can cause excessive abrasion and wear to the internal workings of the pump,” Atlas Copco Power and Flow product marketing manager – submersible pumps Bart Duijvelaar said.
“At Atlas Copco, we are driven by innovation, and so we have taken the fundamental design of the drainage pump back to the drawing board. We have optimised the hydraulic design using computational fluid dynamics and applied 21st century manufacturing techniques combined with decades of experience to produce this new long-lasting and reliable pump.”
The pump has also been built with maintenance and serviceability front of mind. Thanks to the clever design, users can also carry out inspection and maintenance on site themselves and reduce downtime and associated costs. For example, the mechanical seal is a unique stainless-steel single cartridge, rather than many separate components, and so it is easy to replace in one piece.
For Atlas Copco Power and Flow achieving a more sustainable future is crucial. Therefore, facilitating the repairability of its pumps has been at the forefront of the design to ensure less time-consuming maintenance and best-in-class service support. It gives a second life to these pumps with increased uptime.
WEDA D95 also features external oil inspection screws. Operators can easily access the screws to check the quality of the oil and the health status of the seal without having to dismantle the whole pump. This makes preventive maintenance easy so users can detect problems before they lead to failure.
Overall, with the ease of service, it is possible to readjust the pump to the original performance without changing many parts. The pump’s repairability prolongs the life of the pump, giving it a second life and contributing towards a more sustainable future.
Additionally, the pumps in the D range are available with various accessories including different types of discharge connections, pump rafts and zinc anodes to provide extra corrosion resistance.
The new WEDA D95 pumps are backed by Atlas Copco’s service team and supported by a wide network of local dealers and technicians worldwide with readily available parts to help users keep their operations up and running to improve productivity.
With state-of-the-art manufacturing and 3D modelling tools, Atlas Copco is addressing product performance and technical challenges at the design stage. The WEDA D95 submersible pump is the latest example of a well-crafted and thoughtfully designed pump range, with more models expected in the company’s portfolio in the coming years.
Keramos is located in Port Kennedy, Western Australia in the heart of the Western Australian mining industry. We have customers throughout all states of Australia and supply throughout the world to countries including New Zealand, Laos, Dominican Republic, Solomon Islands, Senegal, South Africa, Mali, Tanzania and Ghana.
Keramos acquires C-Tech Engineering, a metal fabrication business located in the industrial hub of Canning Vale, Western Australia. C-Tech will be fully integrated into Keramos, and we are excited to welcome the experience and expertise of the C-Tech team to Keramos.
Read about Keramos silicon carbide ceramic cyclone overflow pipes and how we can extend the wear life and increase the reliability of pipes in slurry wear applications.
Renascor Resources’ Siviour graphite project is located on the Eyre Peninsula, South Australia.
With graphite demand outstripping supply, the market is bracing for a 777,000-tonne per year deficit by 2030. But movement in the mining sector – both traditional and innovative – may be set to change this.
One of the key raw materials in the green energy transition is graphite, but while Australia is a key producer of other battery metals such as lithium, nickel and manganese, there are no active Australian graphite mining operations.
Graphite is used as an input for anodes – one of two electrodes that make up a lithium-ion battery, with cathodes – made up of metals such as lithium, nickel and cobalt – the other electrode.
By 2030, demand for graphite is expected to hit four million tonnes (Mt) per year, roughly 75 per cent of which is for the lithium-ion battery market. Currently, the bulk majority of graphite comes from China.
The highest profile Australian-focused company in this sphere is Renascor Resources, which owns the Siviour battery anode material project in SA.
Siviour holds the second largest graphite reserve in the world, and the largest outside of Africa.
As recently as last week, the Renascor increased Siviour’s mineral resource by 25 per cent to an impressive 123.6Mt at 6.9 per cent total graphitic carbon (TGC), for 8.5Mt of contained graphite.
The company predicts the mine, when operational, to produce up to 150,000 tonnes per year for a 40-year life of mine.
“As the demand for graphite grows, long-life, high quality sources of new supply like Siviour are becoming increasingly important to the developing lithium-ion battery supply chain,” Renascor managing director David Christensen said.
In July this year, the company signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Mitsubishi Checmical Corporation for the potential sale of its graphite products from Siviour to the Japanese giant.
Founded in 2018, ASX-listed International Graphite was built on the premise that the industry would need more downstream processing capacity outside of China.
The company is developing a mine-to-market business model, whereby raw materials would be mined from its Springdale project in WA and fed into a downstream processing plant in the emerging renewable energy hub of Collie.
International Graphite similarly announced a significant increase to its graphite deposit at Springdale, which is the second largest in Australia behind Siviour.
The deposit grew from 15.3Mt to 49.3Mt at 6.5 per cent TCG.
Despite the 27 per cent increase, International Graphite managing director Andrew Worland said the company had only scratched the surface at Springdale.
“So far, exploration has been limited to approximately 10 per cent of the Springdale tenement areas. More than 80 per cent of the aeromagnetic anomalies on a portion of our tenure has yet to be tested,” Worland said.
Outside of Australia, interesting developments have been made.
New Zealand-based battery material company CarbonSpace recently secured an $18 million investment from a number of partners to commercialise production of what it calls ‘biographite’.
Biographite is produced from forestry and timber industry by-products, meaning a significant reduction in carbon emissions.
“Biographite has a carbon negative footprint, saving up to 30 tonnes of CO2 emissions per tonne of material compared to synthetic or mined graphite,” the company said.
“This investment represents a strong statement of support for sustainable sourcing of battery materials for global decarbonisation. With these partnerships, CarbonScape is another step closer to bringing biographite to market on a commercial scale.”
Renascor Resources’ Siviour graphite project is located on the Eyre Peninsula, South Australia.
With graphite demand outstripping supply, the market is bracing for a 777,000-tonne per year deficit by 2030. But movement in the mining sector – both traditional and innovative – may be set to change this.
One of the key raw materials in the green energy transition is graphite, but while Australia is a key producer of other battery metals such as lithium, nickel and manganese, there are no active Australian graphite mining operations.
Graphite is used as an input for anodes – one of two electrodes that make up a lithium-ion battery, with cathodes – made up of metals such as lithium, nickel and cobalt – the other electrode.
By 2030, demand for graphite is expected to hit four million tonnes (Mt) per year, roughly 75 per cent of which is for the lithium-ion battery market. Currently, the bulk majority of graphite comes from China.
The highest profile Australian-focused company in this sphere is Renascor Resources, which owns the Siviour battery anode material project in SA.
Siviour holds the second largest graphite reserve in the world, and the largest outside of Africa.
As recently as last week, the Renascor increased Siviour’s mineral resource by 25 per cent to an impressive 123.6Mt at 6.9 per cent total graphitic carbon (TGC), for 8.5Mt of contained graphite.
The company predicts the mine, when operational, to produce up to 150,000 tonnes per year for a 40-year life of mine.
“As the demand for graphite grows, long-life, high quality sources of new supply like Siviour are becoming increasingly important to the developing lithium-ion battery supply chain,” Renascor managing director David Christensen said.
In July this year, the company signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Mitsubishi Checmical Corporation for the potential sale of its graphite products from Siviour to the Japanese giant.
Founded in 2018, ASX-listed International Graphite was built on the premise that the industry would need more downstream processing capacity outside of China.
The company is developing a mine-to-market business model, whereby raw materials would be mined from its Springdale project in WA and fed into a downstream processing plant in the emerging renewable energy hub of Collie.
International Graphite similarly announced a significant increase to its graphite deposit at Springdale, which is the second largest in Australia behind Siviour.
The deposit grew from 15.3Mt to 49.3Mt at 6.5 per cent TCG.
Despite the 27 per cent increase, International Graphite managing director Andrew Worland said the company had only scratched the surface at Springdale.
“So far, exploration has been limited to approximately 10 per cent of the Springdale tenement areas. More than 80 per cent of the aeromagnetic anomalies on a portion of our tenure has yet to be tested,” Worland said.
Outside of Australia, interesting developments have been made.
New Zealand-based battery material company CarbonSpace recently secured an $18 million investment from a number of partners to commercialise production of what it calls ‘biographite’.
Biographite is produced from forestry and timber industry by-products, meaning a significant reduction in carbon emissions.
“Biographite has a carbon negative footprint, saving up to 30 tonnes of CO2 emissions per tonne of material compared to synthetic or mined graphite,” the company said.
“This investment represents a strong statement of support for sustainable sourcing of battery materials for global decarbonisation. With these partnerships, CarbonScape is another step closer to bringing biographite to market on a commercial scale.”
Prometheus Materials has designed a zero-carbon concrete. Credit: Prometheus Materials’ website
Cement is well-known as one of the world’s widely consumed building materials, but an American company is changing the recipe with underwater ingredients.
Zero-carbon concrete is not new as an industry abroad, and Australia seeks to decarbonise operations and cement from its carbon emissions.
Prometheus Materials used microalgae to produce an alternative to traditional Portland cement. The company says the microalgae cement produces little-to-no CO2 and recycles 95 per cent of its water during production.
Alongside the carbon emissions benefits, the bio-cement has proven in recent tests to be incredibly absorptive for sound for noise reduction.
“Our latest ASTM testing results embody our commitment to innovative design,” president, chief executive, and co-founder of Prometheus Materials Loren Burnett said.
“We’ve developed a novel material that provides a zero-carbon alternative to traditional concrete while delivering additional performance benefits and applications. We’re proud to pave the way toward a more technologically advanced and environmentally responsible future for the construction industry.”
With significant investment from the Microsoft Climate Innovation Fund, Prometheus has created an initial pre-cast bio-concrete product line that includes masonry units, segmented modular blocks and acoustic panels, and pavers.
The company still faces barriers to being approved as part of local building codes but is confident that with education, more people will engage with bio-cement.
“They’re doing a $75 million rehab on that building [Hellems Arts & Sciences building], and we will be on the interior walls. They want to put our blocks on interior walls that are highly visible to traffic, with storyboards to tell the story that these blocks are our zero carbon alternative material blocks made out of algae, originally invented at the University of Colorado,” Burnett said.
Kinder Australia is helping quarries protect one of their expensive assets – conveyor belts.
The Australian sun is relentless, with some of the highest levels of ultraviolet (UV) radiation in the world.
According to the Cancer Council, the UV radiation is strong enough to cause sunburn in as little as 11 minutes on a fine summer day.
For people, avoiding the damaging rays can be as simple as “slip, slop, slap,” but the same can’t be said about conveyors.
Usually located outside conveyors need to bear the brunt of the elements. Conveyor belts – which are usually the most expensive part of the conveyor – are susceptible to UV and heat. It can cause cracking, or delamination of the top cover, significantly shortening the equipment’s life.
Sean Kinder, business development manager at Kinder Australia, told Quarry that to avoid costly downtime and repairs, quarries can cover up and protect their conveyors with the K-AllShelter.
“K-AllShelter Conveyor Covers have been designed to provide complete and reliable coverage of the conveyor,” he said.
“K-AllShelter Conveyor Belt Covers are manufactured using a wide range of optional materials and engineered as a waterproof, durable barrier.”
It’s not just the sun and heat that can disrupt a quarrying operation. Rain, hail, and sleet can alter the consistency and quality of the conveyed materials.
Kinder points to the example of a concrete plant that needs to keep its moisture levels consistent to maintain the relevant specification. Heavy rains would make this impossible, pausing critical production time.
Rain can also create downstream production issues, including screen blinding and clogging issues. Moist materials can also cause hang up in chutes, blocking material flow and creating a spillage risk. In extreme scenarios, the wind and rain could even wash the material off the belt.
Kinder said the K-AllShelter can be custom made to suit all belt widths and models.
“It depends on what you’re trying to do – are you just looking to keep the product dry, or are you looking to protect it from the wind? Is the cover being used as a guard? Are you looking to reduce dust?” he said.
“We can change the shape of the cover to fit almost any application. Our team will visit the site and inspect the conveyor, taking measurements and acquiring drawings. From there, we can create a digital model before beginning the manufacturing process.”
“When it is installed, we can also paint the cover to fit with the rest of the environment. If it’s in a more arid area, we can help it blend into the surrounding colours.”
The conveyor belt covers can be designed and manufactured using a wide range of high-performance materials including galvanised steel, pre-lacquered steel, stainless steel and aluminium and fibre reinforced polyester.
Covering the conveyor is also beneficial to operators from a safety perfective. Moving parts are covered effectively, and dust is contained safely within the covers. It features a patented double lock/hinge system, which allows access from either side of the conveyor.
Service props and struts also come in varying designs, shapes, and sizes. These handy tools allow operators to gain access inside the cover to conduct routine maintenance.
Service props are fully adjustable systems that hold up the conveyor belt cover safely and securely so that any maintenance inside the covers can be easily performed.
Kinder has had positive feedback.
“The sites that have generally ordered a sample to be installed on one conveyor have come back to have them installed on others,” he said.
“The sites are comfortable using them and they can see the value the protection brings.”
The K-AllShellter also feature a dust-tight seal that prevents dust from escaping the conveyor. This also prevents dust from entering the conveyor system and causing damage to the components.
Kinder said eliminating spillage and dust is vital for the company, and one of the reasons it is focusing on the K-AllShelter.
“We are always looking for ways to cut down on the amount of labour our customers need to do. Eliminating spillage means there is less time spent cleaning around the conveyors, and more time focused on tasks that add value.”
A new process could offer a solution to reducing carbon emissions in iron and steel making.
BioIron™ uses raw, sustainable biomass and microwave energy instead of coal to convert Pilbara iron ore to iron in the steelmaking process. BioIron has the potential to be carbon neutral and can result in net negative emissions when linked with carbon capture and storage.
We have proven the process works using a small-scale pilot plant, and now we’re planning to test it on a larger scale.
Why is low-carbon steel important?
Making steel – the process of converting iron ore into iron and iron into steel – uses a lot of energy. Because of this – and the fact it’s used in so many things – steel making is responsible for around 8% of all global emissions.
Most of these emissions are created during the industrial process transforming iron ore – the raw material – into metal. Decarbonising the way iron (and therefore steel) is made could make a significant contribution to reducing global emissions.
We worked with experts from the University of Nottingham, England and Metso Outotec, a specialist in sustainable technologies, to prove BioIron works on a small scale, and now we’re scaling it up to a continuous pilot plant with a capacity of one tonne per hour.
Rio and Metso strengthen BioIron partnership
Metso has been awarded a detailed design and engineering contract from Rio Tinto for its continuous pilot plant (CPP) on behalf of the BioIron process.
The BioIron process uses raw biomass instead of metallurgical coal as a reductant and microwave energy to convert Pilbara iron ore to metallic iron in the steelmaking process.
According to Rio Tinto, it has the potential to be carbon neutral and can result in net negative emissions when linked with carbon capture and storage.
The new contract awarded to Metso from Rio Tinto serves as an extension of the work both companies have been doing together on the development of the BioIron process since December 2022.
Rio Tinto proved the effectiveness of the process using ores from its mines in Australia in a small-scale pilot plant in Germany after testing by Rio Tinto, Metso and the University of Nottingham’s Microwave Process Engineering Group was conducted for 18 months.
Through this new contract, Rio Tinto aims to move further towards the full-scale implementation of the BioIron technology through the CPP operation, and Metso will deliver the detailed design of the CPP’s reduction furnace and other equipment for the BioIron process.
Rio Tinto general manager of steel decarbonisation David Leigh said this is an important step in developing the BioIron technology.
“This work is the key next step in the development of the BioIron technology and builds on the success of the research and development team,” Leigh said.
Metso director of ferrous metals Matthias Gabriel echoed similar sentiments.
“We are very excited to continue the close working relationship with Rio Tinto and to provide engineering and design support as we move to the next phase of development of the BioIron technology,” Gabriel said.
Pump type Electrical submersible One-phase and Three-phase
Classification IP 68
Max submersion 20m
Cable SUBCAB
Discharge connection Hose
ISO-G or NPT
Limitations ph 5-8
Max liquid temp 40°C
Product code 8110.281; Based on the same basic design as the drainage pumps, the sludge pumps come into action when the liquid gets dirtier than can be handled by the drainage pumps. The design even permits converting between drainage and sludge models allowing you to adapt the pump according to the varying conditions.
Derrick Corporation’s gold screening equipment can minimise maintenance and increase production.
Derrick Corporation’s innovative gold screening equipment allows customers to get more out of their operations.
Gold has been an integral part of the Australian mining environment for centuries. But as ore deposits get deeper and harder to access, processing equipment must keep up to ensure the precious metal can be mined for years to come.
Derrick Corporation has committed itself to developing new and innovative screening equipment to advance gold processing, while also contributing to a favourable investment return for its customers.
“A lot of our innovations come from providing solutions to our current customers,” Derrick general manager mining Garth Hay told Australian Mining.
“For example, the development of the G-Vault (urethane interstage screen) came from a customer complaint about their interstage screen being one of the bottlenecks of their system.”
Over a number of years, Derrick has developed screening solutions to minimise the maintenance a customer has to undertake and to reduce environmental impact.
These new designs and capabilities permit screens to replace more traditional flowsheet elements.
“A Derrick Stack Sizer can replace the hydrocyclones in a grinding circuit, resulting in greater recovery at reduced power consumption per tonne,” Hay said.
“Derrick machines provide superior performance in a smaller footprint, which can offer a huge advancement for a gold plant. By replacing old hydrocyclone technology with modern high-frequency vibrating screens, overall plant capacity can increase by 20 to 50 per cent.”
The G-Vault complete interstage unit is the latest addition to the Derrick gold processing portfolio. The G-Vault employs a modular approach, combining a screen surface with a robust and easy-to-connect support structure.
“The G-Vault features tapered openings and can withstand higher temperatures, contributing to its non-blinding characteristics,” Hay said.
“These non-blinding and abrasion-resistant properties result in a screen with higher throughput, increased life and less maintenance, all of which lead to a more efficient recovery of gold.”
The G-Vault, which has been installed in multiple locations around the world, has been met with wide acclaim.
“Customers are happy to report benefits from a maintenance and production standpoint,” Hay said. “From a maintenance side, we are decreasing man hours spent on maintaining a piece of equipment which in turn helps to reduce risk on-site. From a production standpoint, the G-Vault can increase flow, help mitigate carbon loss and run a consistent CIP (carbon in pulp) or CIL (carbon in leach) system.”
One of Derrick’s primary objectives is to minimise operational costs by developing highly durable machines.
For example, the Derrick integrated vibratory motors feature maintenance-free components that eliminate the need for routine maintenance and downtime. Used in conjunction with Derrick’s long-lasting Polyweb urethane panels, these motors enable clients to achieve optimal availability of their equipment.
The extensive research that goes into the development of these machines helps to ensure a high gold recovery rate and seamless user experience.
This research has evolved into the development of a range of screening solutions to address various gold-processing needs, including hydrocyclone overflow trash duty, tailings carbon safety, in-tank interstage carbon retention, de-gritting, loaded carbon, carbon sizing, carbon dewatering, gravity protection separation, and carbon column safety.
“Our focus has always been to reduce operation expenses by creating more robust machines,” Hay said.
“We have found our customers achieve higher availability with our machines. For example, once the G-Vault is installed, it can be operated for approximately six months before it is required to be changed.
“Other similar solutions may need weekly maintenance, which comes at extra man hours and a loss of tonnes. The G-Vault provides operational, production and safety benefits that increase profitability.”
With a new Australian office now open in Queensland, Derrick is ideally placed to help its customers make the most of its gold processing solutions, no matter the location.
It has long been a trusted mining partner of countries across the world, but there is urgency for Australia to expand its downstream options as the world decarbonises.
Any new industry can present a race to the top, with early adopters best placed to capitalise on new market share and gain a competitive advantage.
This is the case in the context of decarbonisation, where more and more countries are recognising the commercial opportunities that come with establishing the net-zero power sources of a cleaner future.
The situation represents a once-in-a-generation opportunity, and Australia is beginning to understand the role it can play in supporting the green transformation.
Having established itself as a mining superpower, Australia is already a key supplier of the materials driving the world’s renewable energy technologies. But the country can be more than the world’s green-energy quarry, with opportunities to look further downstream and establish vertically integrated renewable industries onshore.
One avenue could be to develop a local battery supply chain, something the Future Battery Industries Cooperative Research Centre (FBICRC) sees as a particularly urgent commercial pathway.
“The clean-energy transition is moving faster,” FBICRC chief executive officer Shannon O’Rourke told Australian Mining. “Government spending on clean energy has increased 30 per cent in the past two years.
“Greater subsidies are driving electric vehicle (EV) demand and increasing commodity prices and volumes. In the past 18 months, the opportunity for Australia has doubled.”
FBICRC released a report in March suggesting Australia’s battery opportunity could contribute $16.9 billion to the Australian economy by 2030.
The report, Charging Ahead – Australia’s Battery Powered Future, highlights Australia’s mining and geological upside, particularly in the production and endowment of critical minerals, and how this can support capabilities further downstream.
This not only encompasses battery manufacturing but other segments in the value chain, such as refining and active materials.
“Australia is cost-competitive across the entire value chain,” O’Rourke said. “We are eight per cent cheaper than Indonesia to produce advanced materials and five per cent cheaper than the United States to produce cells.”
Australia also has a significant advantage in refining, with the potential to be the world’s cheapest producer of lithium hydroxide monohydrate (LHM) through upstream integration in the supply chain. This is the result of Australia’s abundant lithium reserves and mining capacity, which creates natural synergies with downstream applications.
Some Australian companies are already harnessing onshore lithium hydroxide opportunities, with Mineral Resources (MinRes) and IGO producing the refined product from their downstream processing facilities in Kemerton and Kwinana, respectively.
The Kemerton plant sources spodumene concentrate – a raw lithium material – from the Greenbushes lithium mine in WA, which is part owned by MinRes’ Kemerton partner, Albemarle Corporation.
IGO’s Kwinana plant, which it owns in partnership with Tianqi Lithium Corporation, also sources spodumene from Greenbushes.
The lithium hydroxide produced from Kemerton and Kwinana is then shipped offshore for further processing before it is upgraded to active materials such as lithium-iron-phosphate (LFP) or nickel-cobalt-manganese (NCM) – two key cathode inputs for renewable batteries.
But demand for Australia’s upstream products is not solely coming from overseas, with a growing local renewable energy sector seeking more materials than ever.
“Australia’s local demand is skyrocketing,” O’Rourke said. “Bloomberg reports that Australia has the largest pipeline of energy storage projects behind China, and a recent Sunwiz report shows that Australia’s behind-the-meter battery storage market is up 55 per cent year on year.”
The Australian Government is funding eight large-scale batteries to be built across the country, storing renewable energy and reducing the reliance on fossil-fuel power generation. Project locations extend from Victoria’s Surf Coast all the way up to Queensland’s tropical north.
Building independent capabilities is important, but for Australia to effectively harness its battery opportunity, it needs to tackle the matter holistically.
“Building an ecosystem is like trying to solve the chicken-and-egg problem,” O’Rourke said. “A healthy ecosystem needs multiple suppliers, customers and producers, supported by service companies, a flexible workforce, the research sector and government.
“Building that incrementally could take decades, and no other country is taking that approach. Industrial growth is non-linear and needs to be supported by trade and accelerated by domestic support.
“Australia is in a good position. It has multiple projects either announced or operating across all elements of the value chain including refining, materials, (and) cell and system manufacturing.
“We have a complete value chain today, including cell manufacturers. The challenge is building out more capacity and scaling up.”
FBICRC believes Australia can be competitive all the way from refining to manufacturing, but the country must find its sweet spot.
“We do not need to match China’s scale; rather we need to achieve minimum economic scale,” O’Rourke said. “Our minerals strength, our secure supply and our ESG (environmental, social and governance) credentials help sharpen our competitive edge.
“Australia has two cell manufacturing projects which meet this minimum scale: Recharge Industries’ 30-gigawatt-hour-per-annum project in Avalon (Victoria) and Energy Renaissance 5.3-gigawatt-hour-per-annum project in Tomago (New South Wales).
“The NRF (National Reconstruction Fund) and other support mechanisms can help Australia’s lighthouse projects get to scale and develop their supporting industries to build a competitive ecosystem.”
The Australian Government introduced the NRF in October 2022, contributing $15 billion to transform several future-facing industries, including renewable energy and downstream opportunities within the resources sector.
Federal support has also been flowing via the Critical Minerals Development Program, which recently provided close to $50 million in grants for emerging upstream and downstream projects.
This included $6.5 million of funding for Australian Strategic Materials’ Dubbo rare earths project in NSW, $4.7 million for International Graphite’s ‘mine-to-market’ graphite strategy in WA, and $4.6 million for IGO’s integrated precursor cathode active material (pCAM) facility in WA.
IGO is developing its downstream project in partnership with Andrew Forrest-backed Wyloo Metals, demonstrating the power of collaboration in Australia’s downstream ventures.
Collaboration is also a key part of FBICRC’s work and underpins its own pilot plant, is exploring the local production of NCM cathode materials.
“There is a strong collaborative spirit supporting our cathode precursor production pilot plant facility, where we are currently manufacturing high performance materials to world standard,” O’Rourke said.
“Four universities and 18 other businesses have come together to build and demonstrate an Australian manufacturing capability.”
Key mining industry players such as BHP, Allkem, IGO, Cobalt Blue, Lycopodium and BASF have come together with FBICRC to further Australia’s understanding of the active materials industry.
Australia’s battery opportunity is there for all to see, and there are enough developments to suggest that an integrated supply chain could be established.
But for it to happen, Australia must be firing on all cylinders, with stakeholders right across the battery supply chain working together to make this dream a reality.
