Displaying items by tag: Australia

Australia/UK: InterGroup Mining has secured just under Euro60m from Luxembourg-based investment group GEM Global Yield as part of a share subscription facility. The Australia-based mining company says it will use the funds primarily for the ongoing development and commercialisation of its Brilliant Brumby kaolin and gold project in Queensland. The company hopes to sell the kaolin for use in cement and concrete production or as a feedstock for high purity alumina (HPA). It says it will be able to drawdown the funds over a 36-month term following a public listing of its common stock.

Neil Miller, the chairman of InterGroup said, “The GEM facility provides a major accelerator for InterGroup as we continue to prove up the scale of our Brilliant Brumby project and the optimal development path for the co-mining opportunity of kaolin and gold. It likewise enables us to continue our important research and development work into the new carbon reduction markets of potential scale that our minerals serve and which complement their existing known end markets.” InterGroup is currently working towards a potential stock market flotation in the second half of 2021.

Australia: Ryan Stokes has been appointed as the chairman of Boral. The appointment follows Seven Group’s acquisition of a majority shareholding in Boral in late July 2021. Kathryn Fagg, the former chair, has retired from Boral. Richard Richards, a Seven Group nomination, has also been appointed as a director. Stokes is the managing director and chief executive officer of Seven Group, an Australian-based conglomerate that operates in the industrial services, oil and gas and media sectors.

Australia: James Hardie Industries has published its 2021 Sustainability Report, entitled Building Sustainable Communities. The report outlines the group’s sustainable future, commitments and progress to date in four key areas, namely Communities, Environment, Innovation and Zero Harm. The framework uses measurable goals, such as a 40% greenhouse gas reduction between 2019 and 2030, a 5% increase in gender diversity in management positions between 2020 and 2024 and an increase in the proportion of revenues covered by environmental product declarations to 80% from 26% in the 2021 financial year. Formalised in the 2021 financial year, the sustainability strategy is integrated with James Hardie’s global strategy for value creation and operational performance.

Chief executive officer Jack Truong said “Our commitment to building better, more sustainable communities starts by building better homes, with the homebuilding materials of the future.” He added “Our commitment to a sustainable future extends to our James Hardie community, the local communities in which we operate and across the largest shared community of all, our global ecosystem. At James Hardie, we are transforming the way the world builds by offering better, safer and more sustainable products.”

Australia: AdBri has awarded a gas sales agreement with Senex Energy to supply up to 11PJ of natural gas to support its manufacturing operations in the south of the country to 2030. Supply will start in January 2023. The long-term, contract sets prices ‘in line with current market levels.’ Adbri chief executive officer Nick Miller said that he was ‘pleased to execute this long-term agreement,’ which gives certainty to both parties moving forward.

Adbri committed to net-zero carbon emissions by 2050 in late May 2021.

Australia: Seven Group has increased its stake in Boral to 52% via a 3% equity swap with Macquarie. the company now has effective control of the building materials producer although it assured Boral that it would retain a majority of independent directors, according to the Sydney Morning Herald newspaper. However, Boral has continued to urge its shareholders to resist the ongoing offer by Seven Group to buy their shares. The takeover bid has been valued at around US$6.5bn. Boral is currently in the process of selling its US fly ash business.

Australia: Fortescue Metals Group subsidiary Fortescue Future Industries has announced plans to enter green cement production. The company plans to make use of waste from green iron ore processing and ‘other easily-sourced materials’ in production.

Chief executive officer Elizabeth Gaines said “At Fortescue, we are leading the heavy industry battle against global warming, transitioning from being a major fossil fuel importer to a significant green and renewable energy and product exporter.” The group is targeting net-zero CO₂ emissions by 2030.

Austria/Australia: Refractory producer RHI Magnesita and Calix say they have started a memorandum of understanding to develop a flash calciner for use in the production of refractory materials, to enable CO₂ separation for either utilisation or storage. The companies have agreed to run studies up to and including basic front-end engineering and design for a commercial-scale demonstration facility at an RHI Magnesita site.

RHI Magnesita and Calix started discussing a collaboration in early 2019. The application of Calix's technology to refractory products has been the subject of pilot scale test work during 2020, with larger scale test work currently underway.

Luis Bittencourt, chief technology officer of RHI Magnesita said, "We are pleased to be working with Calix on this project, which is a key part of the research and development programme on CO₂ emissions reduction that we are carrying out over the next five years. Together with our partners at Calix, we are seeking to develop new technologies for the capture, storage and utilisation of CO₂ that would otherwise be emitted during the refractory production process." Phil Hodgson, the managing director of Calix added that the company was also looking at strategic opportunities in its magnesium oxide businesses.

Australia: Calix has joined as a partner of the Heavy Industry Low-carbon Transition Cooperative Research Centre (HILT CRC). The initiative brings together heavy industry players, government and research and aims to boost the capability of Australian companies to remain globally competitive by capitalising on existing mineral and renewable energy resources to become international producers and exporters of low-carbon products. HILT CRC has secured US$29m from the government. This joins funding of US$158m in direct and in-kind contributions from its partners over the last decade.

“It is a chance for us to demonstrate the technology developed for CO₂ mitigation in the production of cement and lime through our European LEILAC-1 and 2 projects in an Australian setting, as well as explore other more sustainable applications for our technology in heavy industry, backed by this impressive team of researchers and industrial participants," said Calix’s managing director Phil Hodgson.

As part of the HILT CRC, Calix will continue to develop its technology for the reduction of carbon emissions from lime and cement production, and also use its Calix Flash Calciner (CFC) technology to develop other more processing applications such as for bauxite processing for the aluminium industry and production of calcined clay from kaolinite for use in new lower carbon cements.

HILT CRC’s core industrial partners include Adbri, Alcoa, Boral, Fortescue, Grange Resources, Liberty, Roy Hill and South32. The initiative has its headquarters in Adelaide and it plans to establish hubs in heavy industry regions of Gladstone, the Pilbara, Northern Tasmania, South Australia’s Upper Spencer Gulf, Western Australia's Kwinana and South West regions, the Southern Highlands of Nnew South Wales and Portland in Victoria.

Australia: FCT Group has appointed Adriano Greco as its chief executive officer (CEO). He succeeds Constantine Manias in the role, who will retain the post of executive chairman.

Greco has served the company as American regional CEO since 2015 and implemented its Brazilian business. He brings over 20 years of pyro-processing experience from management roles in the Americas, China and Europe while working for Greco Combustion Systems and Gebr. Pfeiffer.

Australia: Adbri says it wants to achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2050 as part of its commitment to a low carbon future. The board and management team are assessing medium and long term emissions reduction options and are intend to release a roadmap by the 2022 annual general meeting. Adbri set its current emissions reduction target in 2019, to deliver a 7% reduction in its greenhouse gas emissions by 2024 against 2019 baselines. In 2020 it achieved 2.3% reduction.

“We recognise that process emissions from the production of cement and lime are not easy to abate. Adbri is committed to maintaining its sector leadership position in sustainability by continuing to increase its use of renewable energy, alternative fuels and supplementary cementitious materials. Developments in technology and partnership with industry, government and research institutions will be critical as we deepen our understanding of long term emission reduction options. This will form part of our roadmap toward net zero by 2050,” said Adbri’s chief executive officer Nick Miller.