Sicona calls for faster battery plant funding to match global peers

Battery material manufacturer Sicona Battery Technologies is calling for more late-stage growth capital investment into manufacturing for critical minerals and battery materials, for Australian industry to keep pace with global peers.

The government's Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) has backed commercialisation of Sicona under the Future Made in Australia agenda.

ARENA will provide up to $45 million to support the firm for manufacturing its advanced silicon-carbon battery anode material SiCx. The batteries aim to increase charging speeds up to 40% and battery density by 20% faster than conventional batteries, while remaining compatible with existing production lines.

"Australia has the foundations in place, with ARENA backing our first commercial plant and a government openly talking about a higher risk appetite and faster decisions, which is exactly what this industry needs," Sicona Battery Technologies chief executive Christiaan Jordaan said.

"Every company in this category reaches the same point, where grants and venture capital carry you to pilot scale and construction finance has to come from somewhere, and the countries moving quickest on that step are the ones building the plants.

"We have the technology, we have been through ARENA's diligence, and we have the site at Port Kembla, so Australia is closer to a working silicon-carbon anode plant than most people realise. The opportunity in front of us is to move at the same speed the UK and the US are moving, and to back the projects that are ready to build now."

Sicona said Australia holds the lithium, the technology, and a site that has already passed ARENA's diligence, which puts the country in a position to build the plant onshore if construction funding moves quickly enough.

NOAB Ventures director John Wood said: "The pattern Sicona is describing shows up right across the portfolio I invest in, where seed and venture money takes a company to the point of building something and construction finance becomes the hard part.

"Australia has built genuine strength in inventing this technology, and the opportunity now is to back it through to manufacturing rather than watching another country fund the factory. Sicona has done the hard part already, and projects at that stage are exactly where faster decisions and a higher risk appetite pay off."