Australia needs a National Innovation Council – by Dr John Howard

As shown in @AuManuracturing News’s Towards 3% R&D editorial series, Australia’s innovation effort is tanking, with a lack of national policy co-ordination a key issue. Here Dr John H Howard, puts the case for a National Innovation Council. In an era where innovation drives economic growth and global competitiveness, Australia’s fragmented approach to industrial strategy…

Element 25’s grant for US factory replacing China supply

By Peter Roberts The emerging pattern of Australia digging up the critical minerals while others finance the construction of value adding processing in their own markets is repeating itself in battery material manganese, with Element 25 securing lucrative US government support. Element 25, which is developing the Butcherbird manganese deposit in Western Australia’s Pilbara, has…

Now is the time to invest in critical minerals refining – By Joe Kaderavek

Following @AuManufacturing’s questioning of Australia’s progress in developing critical minerals, Joe Kaderavek says now is the time to invest in mid-stream refining in Australia. Commodity prices move in deep cycles, causing mining boom and bust periods. Many critical minerals markets are suffering from over-supply following a phase of over-investment after nearly a decade of low…

Best of the week — the five most popular stories among readers, September 9 – September 13, 2024

What were the five biggest stories of the week? Here’s what visitors to @AuManufacturing were reading. 5) AIM Defence opens new anti-drone laser factory Laser-based anti-drone system maker AIM Defence has expanded into a 4000 sqm facility to support the manufacture and export of AIM’s Fractl Counter Uncrewed Aerial Systems (C-UAS) laser. The new facility will house a skilled…

Is Australia’s role in critical supply chains as ever – we supply materials, they do value adding

By Peter Roberts Some years into Australia’s newfound awareness of critical mineral supply chains and their importance to electrification and new technologies, have things changed all that much? Mostly, despite the hype of our being a battery or other materials ‘superpower’, Australia still supplies the raw materials and others do the economic value adding in…

Manufacturing news briefs – stories you might have missed

Critical minerals prospectus showcases 55 projects The federal government has launched a new digital Australian Critical Minerals Prospectus, showcasing more than 55 investment-ready projects to potential investors and buyers from around the world. The digital Prospectus features an interactive online map, shining a spotlight on all of the investment ready projects. The tool can be…

The time for made in Australia is now – Tim Ayres in his own words

Australia’s newly minted Assistant Minister for a Future Made in Australia Tim Ayres believes opportunities such as the revitalisation of manufacturing come around rarely. Today is one of those opportunities he argues in this excerpt from his address to the National Manufacturing Summit. As the Prime Minister said back in April – we need to…