WA in national push to seize battery opportunity

A meeting of minds from industry, academia and government will develop an $18 million cathode precursor pilot plant at Waterford as part of a campaign for Australia to seize the opportunities in the battery revolution.

The Future Battery Industries Cooperative Research Centre has signed contracts with a consortium of 19 leading local, national and international companies, the State Government, contractors and academic institutions to design and commission the plant, which will begin an 18-month trial from the start of next year.

The FBICRC said the pilot plant project was an important step in providing technical capability towards the production of advanced battery materials on an industrial scale in WA.

The plant will produce the present generation of cathode chemistries used in electric vehicles from locally sourced materials.

It will extend the work of several Australian research institutions and companies which can currently produce battery materials in pilot sized batches.

The plant, which is a modified nickel sulphate pilot plant donated by BHP’s Nickel West, will have state-of-the-art automation and controls to enable 24/7 remote operation.

FBICRC chief executive Stedman Ellis said Australia exported the main battery commodities (lithium, nickel, manganese and cobalt) in the form of mineral concentrates with little value added from the manufacturing of lithium-ion battery materials retained in Australia.

“The construction and commissioning of refining plants at Kwinana and Kemerton is changing this picture, putting WA on the cusp of being able to meet the supply chain requirements for local manufacture of the nickel-rich NCM (nickel cobalt manganese) used in the booming global electric vehicle market,” he said.

The FBICRC has previously estimated Australia could harness substantial benefits from expanding its presence in the battery value chain, potentially delivering $1.9 billion to the economy and supporting 9300 jobs by 2030.

Curtin University is taking the first step to cathode precursor production at CSIRO’s Waterford facilities with the further step to convert to cathode active materials being led by the Queensland University of Technology in Brisbane and the University of Technology Sydney providing expertise on advanced materials development.

The 19 project participants include big players such as BASF, BHP, IGO, Galaxy Resources, Lycopodium as well as a number of smaller players, four research participants and the Minerals Research Institute of Western Australia on behalf of the WA Government.

Curtin University Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research) Chris Moran said the facility would be instrumental to the creation of an Australian battery materials industry, with the capability to continuously produce a broad range of battery cathode chemistries utilising Australia’s nickel, lithium, cobalt, manganese and aluminium resources for qualification.

He said the plant would serve as the design-basis for industrial-scale operation.