Analysis by Peter Roberts The dream of a sophisticated processing and final products industry based on the key battery metal, lithium, is finally taking shape with a major player Perth’s Lithium Australia group. Uniquely, the company is not only developing a number of lithium mineral deposits here and in Europe, but is pursuing a vision…
There is a lack of market pull for recycled carbon fibre, which is an emerging landfill concern. Brent Balinski spoke to Filip Stojcevski, a co-founder at JUC Surf, which has found a promising application for discarded material.
Comment by Peter Roberts The federal government appears likely to make no effort to support the establishment of electric vehicle manufacturing in Australia following the release of a new report. The report, funded by the Australian Renewable Energy Agency’s Advancing Renewables Programme, looked at the very low level of EV sales in Australia and decided…
Comment by Peter Roberts Australian Strategic Materials’ (ASM) Korean research and development partner, ZironTech has successfully produced a kilogramme of neodymium metal alloy. While this would normally be seen as a win for Australia the fact that production took place in ZironTech’s laboratory in South Korea rings alarm bells. Neodymium is a critical rare earth…
Among Australia’s manufacturing community — which has been identified as a potential source of growth post-Covid — there is hope that consumers and others will buy more local goods now and when the pandemic has finally passed.
Analysis by Peter Roberts Australia’s defence forces, science and industry appear to be working more closely together today than they have at any time since the 1960s on the shared task of ensuring the country’s national security. This became a little clearer in the past week with the release of the 2018-19 Defence Industry and…
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…
Like quantum computing or fusion energy generation, for a long time hypersonics has been described jokingly as something that’s the technology of the future, and which always will be.
By Peter Roberts Food and beverage has been one of the few manufacturing sectors increasing its share of GDP through the decades-long long decline in manufacturing’s share of the economy. Our new world leading wine industry is already the star performer, with our industry leading the world in viticulture and winemaking. Along the way it…
Analysis by Peter Roberts Australian science and industry has a surprisingly key role to play in the new more potent defensive stance announced by Prime Minister Scott Morrison yesterday. Many of the systems envisaged such as hypersonic cruise missiles, directed energy weapons and our own satellites are still in the development phase. However the past…
