Sicona urges faster funding for Australia battery plants

Sicona Battery Technologies has called for more late-stage growth capital for critical minerals and battery materials manufacturing in Australia, saying faster funding is needed to support onshore battery materials plants.

The push comes as overseas governments increase support for silicon-carbon anode manufacturing, the segment in which Sicona operates. It cited UK support for Nexeon and a conditional US loan commitment for Sila Nanotechnologies as examples of public funding helping scale battery materials production.

Sicona argues Australia risks missing out on more of the battery supply chain despite its large role in raw material production. It cited industry data showing Australia produced 45 per cent of the world's lithium in 2023 while accounting for less than 1 per cent of global battery materials or components.

Research cited by Sicona estimated Australia's battery industry could generate AUD $16.9 billion in annual value by 2030 and create 61,400 local jobs, largely in the middle stages of the supply chain. It said that outcome would depend on building battery materials plants domestically rather than leaving those investments to other markets.

Port Kembla project

Sicona has already secured AUD $45 million from the Australian Renewable Energy Agency's Battery Breakthrough Initiative for its first commercial-scale silicon-carbon anode facility at BlueScope's Port Kembla precinct. The full project is valued at AUD $100 million.

According to the company, the plant would lift production 300-fold to 230 tonnes a year and create up to 72 skilled manufacturing jobs. The expansion would come against a broader manufacturing downturn, with 8,700 jobs lost in the year to February 2026 following a 14 per cent decline over two decades.

Sicona is seeking a further AUD $55 million in equity capital to complete the facility. With the ARENA programme now closed to new applications, the National Reconstruction Fund is expected to play a bigger role in the next phase of battery manufacturing finance, particularly for construction.

Construction finance has become a recurring issue for Australian battery businesses. Sicona pointed to Novonix, which secured a conditional loan of up to USD $754.8 million from the US Department of Energy, as an example of a local company turning overseas for support.

Patent expansion

Sicona also said its acquisition of US-based Advano had expanded its intellectual property position. The deal increased its portfolio to 151 patents across 46 patent families and strengthened the technology it plans to manufacture at Port Kembla.

It added that the acquisition did not alter its Australian manufacturing plans and supported its pathway to commercialising the technology in Australia.

Christiaan Jordaan, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Sicona Battery Technologies, said: "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. 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. The countries moving quickest at that step are the ones building the plants."

He said Sicona's project had reached a stage where faster public and private decisions could determine whether manufacturing stayed in Australia. He added that the Port Kembla site had already gone through ARENA's due diligence process.

"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," Jordaan said.

John Wood, Director of NOAB Ventures, 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," Wood said.