Growing Australia's light metal industry

The Minerals Down Under Flagship aims to develop technologies to enhance the global competitiveness of Australia’s vertically integrated aluminium industry (alumina and aluminium).

• 6 May 2011 | Updated 18 January 2012

Overview

• Alumina, aluminium and magnesium
• Maintaining global competitiveness

Alumina, aluminium and magnesium

The Australian alumina and aluminium industries are a significant part of the Australian economy, contributing:

• about A$11 billion each year to the economy
• to annual export earnings of A$10 billion
• to employment for approximately 15 000 people.

The industries were founded on the basis of Australia's abundant resources and history of low-cost energy.

Globally, most major companies involved in alumina refining and aluminium smelting are vertically integrated with a value chain representing 'mine to metal'.

The establishment of a 'green' magnesium industry in Australia would significantly contribute to Australia’s economy and be consistent with the national strategy of value-adding rather than exporting minimally processed resources.

Currently, the industry is dominated by China, which produces more than 80 per cent of global magnesium production.

Maintaining global competitiveness

The Minerals Down Under Flagship's goal is to maintain the global competitiveness of Australian light metals industries, and to consolidate their technology leadership.

We plan to do this by:

• improving existing operational efficiency
• developing breakthrough technologies to extract value from low-value, complex or under-utilised ores
• developing technologies which reduce industrial environmental footprints.

Our specific objectives are to:

• grow Australia's share of global alumina production to 50 per cent 
• reduce the energy requirement and global greenhouse gas impact (CO2 equivalent/tonne) of aluminium production by 30 per cent
• establish a lowest-cost quartile Australian magnesium industry to 20 000 tonnes per annum.