• Federal climate and energy minister Chris Bowen signs the Australia-US Net Zero Technology Acceleration Partnership alongside US energy secretary Jennifer Granholm at the Sydney Energy Forum 
  • The partnership is a key step in ramping up the US and Australia’s shared commitment to ambitious climate action and energy security
  • ARU signs a non-binding MOU with GE Renewable Energy in the establishment of a sustainable supply chain for NdPr

 

Indo-Pacific ministers and business leaders gathered in Sydney today for a two-day forum, co-hosted by the Australian government and The International Energy Agency, that will help secure clean energy supply chains in the region and support the global energy transformation.

Ministers from the United States, Japan, India, Indonesia, and the Pacific Island nation of Samoa are attending the forum along with leaders of major companies that are committed to low emissions technologies.

A formal partnership to accelerate the development and deployment of net-zero emissions technology was signed by Australia and the United States in a bid to reduce greenhouse gas emissions while supercharging economic growth.

The Australia-United States Net Zero Technology Acceleration Partnership is a commitment by the two countries to cooperate in areas such as the development of long duration energy storage technology, digital electricity grids and technology to support the integration of variable renewable energy, hydrogen, and carbon dioxide removal, including direct air capture.

The Minister for Climate Change and Energy Chris Bowen and United States Secretary of Energy Jennifer M. Granholm sealed the deal at the Sydney Energy Forum on Tuesday.

Bowen said this partnership is a huge milestone in ramping up the US and Australia’s shared commitment to ambitious climate action and energy security.

“It prioritises not just development but deployment of the critical technologies that will underpin economic opportunity in the energy transformation of our two countries,” he explained.

Cooperation will be practical, inclusive of industry, research and private sector to drive investment, trade, and development of commercial opportunities between the two countries in low and zero emissions technologies and the critical materials that will drive them.

 

To ASX renewable energy news

ARAFURA RESOURCES (ASX:ARU)

ARU has signed a non-binding MOU with GE Renewable Energy in the establishment of a sustainable supply chain for NdPr, meaning the two parties will negotiate a long-term sales agreement for GE to purchase NdPr from ARU’s Nolan Project in central Australia.

The agreement was unveiled during the Sydney Energy Forum, a high-level summit hosted by the Australian Government and the International Energy Agency focused on securing clean energy supply for the Indo-Pacific.

On the sidelines of the forum, the Governments of Australia and the United States announced a separate government-to-government agreement to support new supply chains for clean energy technologies.

The Nolans Project is a globally significant resource for NdPr with the capacity to support a value chain supplying nearly 5 per cent of the global demand over a projected life of mine of 38 years with expansion potential.

 

EVOLUTION ENERGY MINERALS (ASX:EV1)

While graphite still hasn’t captured the mainstream attention of investors globally yet, it has a huge role to play in decarbonisation by way of energy mobility through batteries.

An EV battery contains around 50kg of the stuff, roughly 10 times the amount of lithium required.

EV1 owns the Chilalo Graphite Project in Tanzania, and the company is currently undertaking a commercial verification program with an established US manufacturer of battery graphite products to evaluate the amenability of Chilalo Graphite fines.

Today, the graphite play revealed that thermal purification has achieved an ‘exceptional’, industry leading purity level of 99.9995% C as a battery precursor – easily exceeding the required purity level as a precursor to battery grade spherical graphite.

Thermally purified Chilalo graphite also exceeds the specifications required for nuclear-grade graphite, which sells for around US$30,000 per tonne.

EV1 managing director Phil Hoskins says the successful purification results indicate that Chilalo graphite is highly amenable to a range of value-added applications in advanced battery systems, including lithium-ion battery anodes.

“Our graphite was shown to be easily refined due to the impurities being situated predominantly on the flake surface, hence the ease with which they can be removed,” he says.

“We are excited to have achieved industry-leading purity levels of 99.9995 wt.% C using thermal purification, as opposed to most conventional graphite purification technologies that use toxic leaching agents, such as HF acid.”

Battery anode testwork is ongoing with further results expected in the coming weeks.

Subject to the results of that testwork, Evolution Energy expects to undertake a feasibility study on the production of coated battery anode materials and other advanced battery products.