Rio closure of NZ smelter a warning to Australia

Comment by Peter Roberts Rio Tinto will close New Zealand’s largest aluminium smelter operated by New Zealand Aluminium Smelters (pictured) in what should be a stark warning to the Coalition dithering on energy policy. A strategic review of the smelter which produces 335,290 tonnes of ultrahigh purity aluminium from Australian bauxite found the business is…

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Quickstep manufactures Harrier parts under contract to Boeing

Composites manufacturer Quickstep Technologies has supplied the United States Marine Corps’ AV-8B Harrier fleet with 260 urgently needed, obsolete aircraft parts. Sydney-based Quickstep produced the parts for the vertical short takeoff and landing (V/STOL) aircraft on short notice under a contract with Boeing Global Services. Originally built by McDonnell Douglas, the Harrier II is a…

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BluGlass to develop new semiconductor production equipment

Semiconductor device developer Bluglass will develop new machinery to manufacture devices such as laser diodes, LEDs and microLEDs with the aid of a grant from the Advanced Manufacturing Growth Centre. AMGC will contribute $250,000, matched by the company, to a project to manufacture more efficient plasma deposition sources for the company’s 300 series RPCVD systems.…

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New satellite ground station is fully indigenous built and owned

Indigenous Business Australia has built a satellite ground station at Alice Springs – the first development of its kind on aboriginal owned land. The ground station, fully built, project-managed and owned by indigenous companies, will transform Australia’s capability in earth observation. The new infrastructure has the potential to reduce the latency for high resolution earth…

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