Report: WA global battery manufacturing hub “technically and commercially feasible”

Queensland University of Technology was commissioned by the Future Battery Industries CRC — with Hatch Engineering and Curtin University supporting — to produce the Li-ion battery cathode manufacture in Australia report.

Report lead Professor Peter Talbot of QUT said Australia had nine of the ten mineral elements needed to make it a reality, and the remainder, graphite, was here in commercial reserves.

The rising global demand for lithium ion batteries, predicted to reach $136 billion by 2030, presented a one in a generation opportunity, “to transition into a major processing, manufacturing and trading hub if an adequate business case can be built,” said Talbot.

“Critical components in advanced battery production — precursor, anode, cathode, electrolyte — can be manufactured in Australia. Battery manufacturing technology central to downstream lithium processing therefore stands as the critical gap in the Australian supply chain.”

The full report can be read here.

According to research produced for Austrade and published in late-2018, Australia was capturing 0.53 per cent of the global battery value chain, despite leading the world as a lithium miner.

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