The future of Australia's metals industry

Leading figures from the minerals research community will discuss the future of the Australian metallurgical industry at Swinburne University of Technology this week.

The annual High Temperature Processing symposium brings together researchers from steel, aluminium and non-ferrous metals industry to share developments and results from the latest research.

There will be a panel discussion of industry experts addressing questions such as:

• What can we do to survive the impact of a high Australian dollar on our struggling steel industry?

• How will changes to Rio Tinto and Alcoa corporate structures affect our large aluminium industry?

• What is the likely impact of a carbon tax on these industries?

• What research developments could shape the future of these important industries in our country?

Swinburne Professor Geoffrey Brooks said these discussions are timely.

"Australia's metallurgical industry is currently struggling with the high Australian dollar and the enormous expansion of industrial output from China into world markets, so we need to really think about how our R&D into metals production will equip Australian industry for the future. I think these pressures will drive innovation. We need to be smarter," Professor Brooks said.

As part of the symposium, Professor Brooks will be describing a new way of improving the quality of steel produced from scrap.

Dr Thomas Eglinton from CSIRO will be talking about the prospects of using solar energy to process minerals.

Mr Andrea Fontana from One Steel will be talking about how to save energy in producing steel.

Dr Nawshad Haque will be describing work at CSIRO designed to use charcoal products to replace petroleum coke in the production of aluminium.

Details of the symposium can be found at http://www.swinburne.edu.au/engineering/htp/symposium/

Event:

High Temperature Processing Symposium
6-7 February 2012, 8.30am - 5.00pm
EN313 Engineering Building
Swinburne University of Technology, Hawthorn

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