What were the five biggest stories of the week? Here’s what visitors to @AuManufacturing were reading. 5) Fortescue backpedals on green hydrogen, heads downstream Andrew Forrest’s Fortescue has backpedaled on its ambitions in green hydrogen, reorganising the mining and energy company and focusing more on familiar downstream green energy opportunities. The company, which has taken what some…
Visy officially opened a new $150 million investment at Penrith on Thursday, and says it is now running the country’s most energy-efficient glass furnace. Visy Chairman Anthony Pratt (pictured on right) said it is Australia’s first oxygen-only fuelled furnace, and uses less than half the energy than the one it replaced. This represented “saving enough…
BHP sets new copper smelting records BHP has set new records for smelted copper production at its South Australian copper mines centred on the Olympic Dam mine, concentrator and smelter. The company achieved record copper mined and concentrate smelted at Olympic Dam in FY24 production was up by 39 per cent to 322kt in the…
Eco Detection, which makes “lab-in-a-box” solutions for automated water quality monitoring, has announced an investment worth $10 million from London Stock Exchange-listed mining services company Capital Limited. In a statement on Friday, the Melbourne-based company said that its Ion-Q platform is currently gaining acceptance over a variety of water monitoring applications. Within mining it supports…
A space camera that can provide images back to Earth at high speed, aiding in disaster resilience operations, land management, and defence, is to be manufactured in Australia. This multi-sensor camera for Earth observation is now in development with Leonardo, Spiral Blue, Nominal Systems and The Australian National University (ANU), brought together under an iLAuNCH…
By Peter Roberts Just as the domestic electricity grid is making quick progress towards decarbonisation, so too are industrial processes such as steelmaking. Australia’s two primary steelmakers have taken different courses in moving towards lower carbon iron and steels. The GFG Alliance at Whyalla is moving from reliance on blast furnace technology towards a combination…
The Australian Furniture Association (AFA) and Global GreenTag International have entered a partnership to increase sustainability benchmarks of furnishing manufacturing practices, product design and output. This follows AFA research which has identified furniture and furnishings as being in the top ten high risk waste and sustainability categories. The AFA delivers industry relevant, professional services to…
Machinery manufacturer SPEE3D has announced a strategic partnership with energy solutions provider RusselSmith to bring its cold spray additive manufacturing (CSAM) equipment to West Africa. RusselSmith will become a regional partner and value-added reseller for SPEE3D products – deploying, training, selling, and supporting customers in the region’s oil and gas, defence, and commercial industries. RusselSmith…
Quantum development company Archer Materials has announced improvements in how the company detects single electron spins in a quantum computing device. Quantum computers store and retrieve information at the sub atomic level, utilising different spin states of an atom’s orbiting electrons. The Archer quantum team, led by Dr Simon Ruffell and Dr Byron Villis, has…
Passive radar manufacturer Silentium Defence has delivered the first tranche of sensor systems for Australia’s Joint Air Battle Management System, AIR6500 being developed by Lockheed Martin Australia. The Silentium Defence MAVERICK passive radar system provides a 3D capability that enables instantaneous, wide-field-of-view surveillance, according to a statement. It also supports tracking of targets with higher…