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BAtteRY MIneRALs FocUs

Advancing Australian

battery technology

s the Australian mining industry begins shareholders who were part of the IPO, Le-
Ato find its feet in downstream process- vison said the listing provided extra advan-
ing of advanced materials, counterparts in tages to Li-S Energy.
the technology space are starting to make “Not only did it allow for the capital raising,
inroads on the application end of the bat- but puts the right disciplines around the com-
tery chain. pany and provides an added level of publicity
Brisbane-based PPK Group Ltd is rapidly and legitimacy,” he said.
becoming a leading player on the Australian While still in the development phase, the
battery technology scene. Originally a pro- lithium-sulphate technology is attracting out- Robin Levison
vider of solutions to the Eastern Australian side interest.
coal sector, PPK has morphed into an ad- “We are certainly seeing partnerships and Having cut his R&D teeth in the under-
vanced materials company thanks to several offtake inquiries from international groups ground coal mining sector, Levison is acutely
partnerships with Deakin University. who want nickel, lithium, etc,” Levison said. aware of Australia’s abilities to find new solu-
In September, PPK spin-off Li-S Energy “We have seen some interesting inbound tions in the extractives space. However, he
Ltd listed on the ASX. Li-S is focused on inquiries about Li-S Energy’s technology sees signs of a maturing advanced materials
developing a battery technology based on although nothing advanced enough to an- sector – driven by the global EV rollout – as
more advanced lithium-sulphur chemistry, nounce. well.
incorporating the boron nitrate nanotube “It has only been in the last few months “We’ve proven ourselves to be a world
(BNNT) material PPK had previously devel- that have we even allocated time to show leader in digging it out of the ground and the
oped with Deakin. how far advanced we are on the test cells. second part – bringing the raw materials to
By combining the two technologies, Li-S We have still got a way to go to generate the some product – we are also pretty good at,”
Energy believes it can improve battery en- level of international interest we expect. It will he said. “But where we are probably not do-
ergy capacity and cycle stability when com- come as we announce test results and get ing enough is in producing the high-value
pared to current lithium-ion batteries and household names interested in the technol- products.
lithium-sulphur batteries, respectively. ogy.” “We are definitely seeing a change
“We had already worked with one re- With Li-S Energy now listed, PPK is aim- though. Both state and federal governments
search group at Deakin on the BNNT and ing to tread the same path with another are increasingly attracted to battery tech-
when we met the team working on the lithi- advanced materials business, White Gra- nology and we are seeing a wide range of
um-sulphate battery, we brought the three of phene Ltd. participants from across the food chain in
us together,” PPK chairman Robin Levison In October, PPK announced it had en- Queensland coming together through the
told Paydirt. “Lithium-sulphate batteries are tered a collaboration agreement with Sun Council for Advanced Materials and Bat-
more energy dense and quicker charging Metals Corporation Pty Ltd, an Australian teries. Trade & Industry Queensland has
than lithium-ion batteries and after that we subsidiary of Korea Zinc Co Ltd which owns brought the council together, bringing in eve-
introduced BNNT as a nano-insulator. That a zinc refinery near Townsville. ryone from miners, to PPK, to the compa-
was the secret sauce to making them last as The agreement will see the two groups nies developing fast chargers.”
long as lithium-ion batteries.” investigate the use of BNNT as a protec-
The JV raised $20 million in April and a tive coating to be applied to sulphuric acid Li-S energy’s lithium-sulphate battery
further $34 million through an IPO prior to its pumps at the refinery. cells undergo cycle testing
listing. The task now is to define a pathway Levison said the collaboration was evi-
to commercial production. dence of the possibilities on offer for BNNT,
“The IPO has allowed Li-S to continue if PPK and its partners can produce enough
building the team and we’re super excited material.
about the opportunity,” Levison said. “Last year, we were only producing a few
Li-S Energy’s plan is to further optimise grams of BNNT each week but now we are
the lithium-sulphur technology before pro- producing 50kg a year,” he said.
ducing battery cells in formats suitable to “Just as with graphene, people want to
manufacturers. From there, the company have access to BNNT but there has been
will build a pilot-scale battery cell production such a supply shortage that it is hard to
facility and investigate ways of how existing get access. We think we have the technol-
lithium-ion battery factories can be adapted ogy advanced enough that we can produce
to produce lithium-sulphate batteries. quantities at low enough costs that industry
The Li-S Energy plan immediately caught could use it where previously costs were too
investor attention. Having run the IPO pro- high.
cess at 85c, the company closed its first “Korea Zinc believes it can help with its
day on the ASX at $2.33 and was valued at sulphuric acid problem and the hydrogen in-
around $1.4 billion at the time of print. dustry also has corrosion issues. So, it could
As well as creating value for the PPK really improve paint, coatings, etc.”

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