Manufacturing news briefs – stories you might have missed

Namoi Cotton grows Northern Australia footprint

Namoi Cotton plans to build and operate a new cotton gin with KCC Kimberley Cotton Company to service the Ord River Irrigation Area in Western Australia. The two companies have been developing plans for the gin since 2020, according to Namoi CEO John Stevenson, and was part of the company’s strategy to extend its ginning footprint into northern Australia. “We are more than a ginning company and with our in-house engineering and fabrication facilities together with our experienced workforce.” KCC will invest $40 million constructing a cotton gin at Kununurra to process cotton from up to 15,000 hectares in the region. The gin, which should significantly lift margins for farmers and allow the production of cottonseed animal feed, should be operational by 2024. Namoi will also acquire 10 per cent of KCC.

Starpharma to distribute Viraleze in Italy

Melbourne pharmaceutical developer Starpharma has secured pharmaceutical wholesaler ADMENTA Italia Group as distributor for its Viraleze antiviral nasal spray (pictured). Viraleze spray, which can be stored at room temperature and does not require refrigeration, will be available in more then 2,500 pharmacies and parapharmacies, as well as 260 of ADMENTA’s LloydsFarmacaia stores. Viraleze contains SPL7013 (astodrimer sodium), which has been shown in laboratory studies to inactivate respiratory viruses, including more than 99.9 per cent of coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 – the virus that causes COVID-19. Viraleze is approved for sale and is being rolled our across the continent.

HyEnergy Export Feasibility Study commences

Province Resources’ has begin the feasibility study underpinning its HyEnergy zero carbon project to export green hydrogen to Asia from the Gascoyne Region of Western Australia. HyEnergy, a project by Province and partner Total Eren, includes Global Energy Ventures’ plan to develop a compressed hydrogen transport ship for its proposed marine export chain. The study will evaluate the technical feasibility and delivered cost of green hydrogen exports utilising GEV’s compressed hydrogen ship to assess its commercial potential. Consultants WSP are the project lead in technical and commercial assessment, ERM will study environmental management and Oropesa will study offshore terminal design and Gascoyne shipping operations. Global Energy Ventures introduced the world’s first large-scale Compressed Hydrogen (C-H2) ship in 2010 and later achieved American Bureau of Shipping Approval in Principle for the vessel with a hydrogen storage capacity of 2,000 tonnes.

WOA supplies lupin protein products to potential customers

Wide Open Agriculture has supplied samples of modified lupin proteins to food and beverage ingredients companies from the company’s pilot manufacturing facility at Kewdale south of Perth. WOA is advancing with two new oat milk products undergoing testing and internal competitive analysis confirming advantages of lupin proteins as ingredients in food. WOA’s oat milk has similar protein levels to dairy milk at 3gr/100ml. WOA will also participate in Western Australia’s Food Innovation Precinct’s Protein X accelerator program aiming to take protein innovations to Asia.

Australian Strategic Materials project delay

Covid-19 travel restrictions between Australia and Korea have held up technical due diligence of Australian Strategic Materials’ Dubbo rare earths project occurring under a ‘framework’ agreement with an Investing Partnership of Korean private equity firms. While due diligence has not been completed by Q3 2021 as anticipated, ASM has appointed Australian and New Zealand Banking Group Limited (ANZ) as debt financial advisor. ASM Managing Director David Woodall said: “We continue to progress the financing of the Dubbo Project, the development of which will provide an alternate, sustainable, secure, and stable supply of high purity and clean critical metals directly into the Korean manufacturing sector.” ASM, the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO) and ASM’s South Korea arm Ziron Tech have already produced high value metals such as permanent magnet alloy Neodymium Praseodymium (NdPr) at its Korea metallisation plant. ASM’s strategy is to own the processing facility in Korea, to pay for the development of the Dubbo deposit.

Picture: Starpharma/Viraleze

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