Lithium mine closure shines light on Ravensthorpe community's resilience
The start of the new financial year saw the lithium mine at Mt Cattlin, just north of the town and about 500 kilometres south-east of Perth, placed into care and maintenance.
It was the another casualty of market volatility that claimed a number of mines across Western Australia, and triggered the loss of hundreds of jobs.
It is the second hit Ravensthorpe has taken, with 300 local jobs lost when the town's nickel mine was shuttered last year.
But disruption isn't unusual for the community. It's the second time in 15 years the lithium mine has been mothballed.
Beyond the mine closure, there have been floods, fires, a plane crash and a sex scandal that engulfed the local council.
Lifelong Ravensthorpe local and shire president Tom Major said the run of adversity highlighted the strength of people in the town.
"Look, we are a resilient community and it's just another page in the chapter of where we live," he said.
"We'll soldier on. The agricultural industry is going really well, we're having a reasonable season, and the tourists just keep coming, so that industry is doing well.
This most recent mine closure hasn't come as a surprise, with former owners Arcadium Lithium flagging the project for care and maintenance in September last year.
Mr Major said unlike previous project closures, which happened almost overnight, the extended process had allowed the council to assess its priorities.
The long lead time has given about 110 workers time to look for other jobs, with many staying in the community thanks to an improvement in services like NBN.
"There have been people leave the community and school numbers are down a little bit, so I wouldn't say we've come through unaffected," Mr Major said.
"We've got some of the some of the best fibre-to-the-premise internet you can get.
"So we are seeing people move here that can work remotely or have online businesses, that sort of thing."
Cheap and available housing, strong agriculture and a burgeoning tourism sector are also keeping the local economy ticking along.
The influx of new people and a move towards showing off the region's unique features is spurring on Sue Leighton, chair of the newly formed Ravensthorpe tourism advisory group.
"The community is sort of used to mining coming and going … and we have been eased into this," Ms Leighton said.
She said the tourism sector would be pivotal in ensuring the region's survival.
The Hopetoun local said now there was no active mining in the region, there was a chance to re-focus, and that the community remained open to new possibilities.
"There's always activity for mining, for exploration and research," Ms Leighton said.
"The townspeople are very resilient and look if new new mine starts up, we'll welcome all those people to come into town.
"Then if they go again, we'll be sad that they're gone, but we've made good friends."
Community consultation over the shutdown began almost 12 months ago, before any announcement that the project would be placed on care and maintenance.
Shortly after Arcadium Lithium announced the closure, the company was snapped up by mining giant Rio Tinto.
While Rio Tinto's reputation in WA has suffered in recent years, its approach in Ravensthorpe has been hailed within the community and the company as best practice.
"I haven't seen a relationship between a mine and a community as strong as the one that I've seen here between the Mt Cattlin mine and the town of Ravensthorpe," said Rio Tinto's general manager of technical services Leigh Slomp.
While Mt Cattlin's operating future remains uncertain, Mr Slomp said they were proud of how they had worked with the community.
"That strong community consultation group … that's the sort of thing we want to be doing while we're in operation, not just when we get to a point where we might have to make a difficult decision," he said.
"We've always been very open with the community … we need to be as transparent as we can be and that transparency then is reciprocated because the community understands the situation."
Mr Slomp said Rio Tinto would remain active in the community while the project was on care and maintenance, and other miners could benefit from a similarly transparent approach.
"Not only just to gain that social licence to operate, it's because we're operating within the community," he said.
"We we need to be working with the community, we're not separate to the community.
"I think this exercise that we've gone through in this care and maintenance phase with the town of Ravensthorpe should be held up as a model for other companies."
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Australian
35 minutes ago
- The Australian
Zeekr announces $57,900 Model Y rival, plans charging network rollout
Chinese EV maker Zeekr has announced a bold move that could undermine Tesla's hold on the Australian market. Many vehicles in Australia are capable of ultra-fast charging; however, their ability is limited in practice due to underdeveloped EV infrastructure. Yes, Tesla does offer Superchargers, but this infrastructure is often exclusive to Tesla owners. For other EV drivers, there are limited public EVs that support truly rapid charging. In New South Wales, if you exclude Tesla-exclusive chargers, there are approximately a dozen stations capable of 350kWh or higher charging that are available to the public. Currently, there are 93,078 registered electric vehicles in the State, according to Transport NSW. This equates to thousands of electric vehicles for every 350kW charger in New South Wales. Zeekr views this as an opportunity to bring their ultra-fast 800V charging stations to Australia, which has already seen immense success in China. 2025 Zeekr 7X. Picture: Supplied MORE: Australia to miss out on lifesaving tech Zeekr Vice President Frank Li says the company is 'seriously considering' building a network of ultra-fast chargers around Australia to accommodate the growing need of their customers. 'We're seriously considering this to support our 800V vehicles. Fast, reliable charging is essential to the Zeekr experience, and we're working on solutions that deliver real value to our customers,' Mr Li says. The company plans to launch a massive charging network as part of its ambitious strategy for the Australian market, following the recent introduction of the Zeekr 7X, which is the company's first vehicle to feature an 800V platform in Australia. Zeekr's mid-sized SUV competes directly with other popular models, such as the Tesla Model Y, BYD Sealion 7, and various other electric SUVs. 2025 Zeekr 7X. Picture: Supplied The 2025 Zeekr 7X starts at $57,900 before on-road costs (around $64,000 drive-away), with the flagship Performance AWD variant priced at $72,900. That positions the 7X about $1000 cheaper than the Tesla Model Y, though slightly more expensive than the BYD Sealion 7. Zeekr says the price for the 7X, which joins the Zeekr X (a small SUV) and the Zeekr 009 (a luxury people mover) in the brand's expanding Australian line-up, remains competitive in the country's growing market. 'This was intended to bring the Zeekr brand to more Australian homes. With so much to offer, we really feel this is incredible value,' Mr Li said. 'We justify our price positioning by delivering long-term value and a tech-forward ownership experience tailored to discerning Australian drivers.' The 7X range comprises three main variants: the RWD (standard range), RWD long-range, and 7X Performance AWD. MORE: 'Jet on wheels': Luxury van's insane cost 2025 Zeekr 7X. Picture: Supplied The RWD model features Zeekr's 75kWh (LFP) 'Golden Battery' technology, which enables rapid charging from 10 per cent to 80 per cent in just 13 minutes. This model also comes standard with height-adjustable air suspension, heated front seats, 19-inch alloy wheels, a panoramic sunroof (with electric sunshade), and interior ambient lighting. According to the EV brand, this variant is capable of a claimed 0-100km/h sprint in around 6.0 seconds. Next in line is the 7X RWD long-range model, which features similar characteristics to the RWD model but offers a larger 100 kWh battery. Despite the increased battery capacity, performance remains unchanged compared to the standard RWD model. The top-spec model of the Zeekr 7X range is the Performance AWD, which delivers the best performance figures in the line-up and shares its battery with the Long Range RWD variant. It is equipped with the same 100 kWh battery found in the long-range model but uses twin electric motors, enabling a 0-100 km/h acceleration in just 3.8 seconds. MORE: Huge lane marking change to Aussie roads 2025 Zeekr 7X. Picture: Supplied 2025 Zeekr 7X. Picture: Supplied The EV brand aims to sell over 2,000 electric vehicles in 2025, and according to Melvyn Low, Zeekr's Head of Product, the 7X plays a crucial role in the brand's achievement of this milestone. 'Our insights into Australian consumers reveal a strong appetite for EVs that combine practicality, performance, and premium design — without the compromises often seen in legacy models,' Melvyn said. 'The 7X reflects this understanding, offering a purpose-built electric SUV tailored to local driving conditions and lifestyle needs, with the space, tech, and refinement modern drivers expect. 'With performance at its core and continuous evolution through OTA updates, the 7X redefines what it means to drive premium.' Read related topics: China Ties James Chung Digital Content Creator James is a Digital Content Creator at and is part of the News Corp Australia's digital real estate team. His previous experience includes working for Sky News Australia.
ABC News
2 hours ago
- ABC News
Why won't Musk let Tesla EVs power homes?
Sam Hawley: It's an idea Elon Musk hasn't fully embraced just yet, and he doesn't want Teslas used for it. Some electric vehicles are already being plugged in to provide power to homes and even to the grid. Today, energy reporter, Dan Mercer, on the revolutionary technology and why the world's richest man is wary of it. I'm Sam Hawley on Gadigal land in Sydney. This is ABC News Daily. Dan, this idea that electric cars could power our homes is fascinating, really. So I just want you to explain this for us. And to do that, it's good to talk about a guy called Richard Chapman. He is a petrol head, or we call them rev heads, I think. Dan Mercer: Yeah, indeed. He's an English fella, Sam, and he lives in the port city of Fremantle in Perth in Western Australia. Richard Chapman, car enthusiast: Absolutely adored cars ever since I knew what a car was. Dan Mercer: He says he's always loved his muscle cars, but he's also not the discriminating sort. He loves electric vehicles too. Sam Hawley: Yeah, he's the sort of, in my head, he's the sort of person you don't associate with an electric car. Dan Mercer: No, but you know, it's kind of funny. He loves Top Gear, he loves the smell of petrol, he loves a car that makes a lot of noise. He equally loves these things, which are sort of the polar opposite of cars. The opposite of that in many ways. Richard Chapman, car enthusiast: I never thought I'd quite embrace the EV thing so fully, but for me now, and I've still got a three litre V6 sports car but I look at that as like a horse. Like it's expensive, it's loud, it's very inefficient. It actually doesn't go as quick as the EVs, but that's more about sort of the emotion and real passion of something like a horse. Dan Mercer: There's this popular conception that tends to have these two things in completely separate camps. But Richard really does swear by his EVs. He reckons they're just phenomenal to drive and the technology behind them is mind blowing. Yeah, the measure of it in his case is that he has three EVs, Sam. Sam Hawley: It sounds like a lot. All right, and he is, Dan, really well set up for charging all of these EVs that he has. Dan Mercer: He is. He's one of these guys who just loves getting things to work really well, taking them apart and building them back together again so he understands them intimately. So in his instance, he's got a lot of solar on his roof. He's got batteries in his house and he's got tariffs that are really cheap in the middle of the day when there's heaps of renewable energy sloshing around the grid. What he does is he tries to charge the cars during those daylight hours. That way the energy that's powering the cars is dirt cheap. Either it's coming straight from his solar panels or it's coming from the grid during a time when prices are at their lowest. And for the most part, it seems to work. Sam Hawley: Yeah, okay. So he also likes to have his cars basically fully charged most of the time. And while they're just sitting there at night and not being used, he would actually like to use some of their power, right? But not for driving around. Dan Mercer: Not for driving, no. He's got a couple of batteries fixed to the wall of his garage as flagged. He can get by most of the time fairly cheaply. There are occasions though when his solar and those batteries aren't enough. And that tends to be in winter and the shoulder seasons when there might not be that much sun around but his demand for power might be quite high. And there are times too in summer when he reckons he just needs that much power because it's so hot and he has to run the air conditioning around the clock and the batteries aren't enough. At those times, he currently has to buy the power from the grid in the evening when prices unfortunately cost a fortune. Needless to say, that's something he's pretty keen to avoid. And he says the answer to those problems should be right there in front of him in the form of the energy that's stored in his EV's batteries. Richard Chapman, car enthusiast: When the main house batteries have run out, I wanna then be able to draw off of the electric vehicles that I've got hundreds of kilowatt hours sitting there and I wanna be able to use that back again. Sam Hawley: Wow, yeah. So using the car's batteries to power his home. And the EV batteries, they're massive, aren't they? So that is a possibility, isn't it? Dan Mercer: They are huge batteries, yeah. I mean, an average household battery is probably around 10 kilowatt hours of storage. A big EV battery can be 80 kilowatt hours or more. And as Richard notes, if you've got a car with a battery with that much power, even thereabouts, that's enough to run a typical household for days at a time. Richard Chapman, car enthusiast: You could run your house for, God, completely off grid for probably a fortnight on that. Sam Hawley: Wow, okay. So it sounds like a great idea. Why doesn't he just do it? Dan Mercer: Basically because his carmaker won't let him. There are other reasons, but the biggest one is that his carmaker won't let him. Richard has a couple of Teslas and Tesla just doesn't, at this stage in Australia at least, support customers using their cars to run their homes. It's not the only business that's going on. There's a big EV brand that's cool on the idea, but it's arguably the biggest name. Richard told me, there are ways he can hook his car slash cars up to his house. The problem is those ways aren't legally kosher. So if you do it, you void the warranty on your car. And if your EV costs $100,000, say, you're just not gonna do it. Sam Hawley: So why, just explain further then, Dan, why it is that Tesla doesn't want it to happen. Dan Mercer: Yeah, look, to be fair to Tesla, there are legitimate reasons why the company might be reticent. For starters, it's a fledgling technology we're talking about. It seems to lack a broadly accepted industry standard. Then there's just the physical reality of it. If you're discharging and charging your EV battery a whole lot more than you would normally do, a lot more because you're using it as a quasi household system, then that has an effect on the longevity of the battery. Most batteries, including the ones typically used in EVs, degrade over time as they're used more and more. And so Tesla doesn't want to be held liable for a warranty if the battery is being cycled in a way that wasn't envisaged, that wasn't tested, that wasn't guaranteed by their own standards. There are suspicions though that maybe Tesla has ulterior motives. The company famously sells household batteries and consumers are much less likely to buy those household batteries if their car battery can do the same thing. The thing is, Sam, this argy-bargy has big implications because some people reckon the technology in question could change the energy system completely. It has a few different names, including bidirectional charging, two-way charging, reverse charging, vehicle to grid and others. Ultimately though, it boils down to a simple proposition, not only charging EVs so they can be driven around, but discharging them too. Sam Hawley: All right, well then let's now, Dan, step through how this actually works because there are three main ways of using a car's battery for power, for powering a home, for instance. So let's run through those. Dan Mercer: Yeah, indeed. Well, and apologies for this next bit because it's all quite jargony. Sam Hawley: All right, we've been warned. Go forth. Dan Mercer: The first is what's called vehicle to load or V2L. And that's simply using your car to run things like tools from a power outlet in the car. At a high level, there's so-called vehicle to home or V2H, which is where you use the battery in your EV to run your house. That's what Richard wants to do. And there's evidence some people are already doing it in Australia, for example, during blackouts. And then there's the biggest one of all, which is called vehicle to grid. As the name suggests, it involves selling electricity from your car's battery to the grid at times when it's needed. A flip side to that is not only just selling it, but you can also store electricity in the car's battery, take it from the grid when there's too much supply, which of course is a problem that we're dealing with these days with so much solar around. Vehicle to home and vehicle to grid, especially are not straightforward. And there's a mix of hardware, software and regulatory permissions that are required to turn the energy that's stored in the car battery into something that can be put into the grid and used safely. So there's a whole bunch of technical challenges involved. Sam Hawley: But if you could transfer the power from your EV to the grid, you could make money from that, right? Dan Mercer: You could. How much? There's a big question mark. Presumably there'd need to be strong financial incentives for you to wanna do it. But ultimately this is kind of about trying to entice you to provide energy from your EV to the system when the system needs it. You might reasonably wonder what possible difference a few EVs could make to something as big as the grid, right? But eventually there will be millions of EVs on our roads and collectively they'll represent an enormous amount of storage that sits idle most of the time. Being able to tap into that in an efficient way could drastically reduce our need to generate electricity from sources like coal and like gas. Sam Hawley: Okay, and there are some people that think this could be revolutionary. Dan Mercer: In theory, yes. I spoke to Ross De Rango who used to run energy and infrastructure at the Electric Vehicle Council, which is an industry body. He now works as a consultant and Ross says there's, in his words, a big golden pot at the end of the rainbow if Australia can make bidirectional charging work. Ross De Rango, EV industry consultant: So the opportunity is the earlier closure of coal and gas-fired power stations. The opportunity is lower cost electricity for all consumers in the country. The risk of absence of support for this technology is that those benefits will take many more years to materialise. Sam Hawley: All right, well, Dan, this does all sound pretty amazing actually, but as you mentioned, there are car companies like Tesla that aren't playing ball at the moment. I think a few are, but there's a few roadblocks here. Dan Mercer: I'll be fascinated to see what happens with two-way charging, Sam. Ross De Rango, the ex-EV Council guy, says governments will need to take the reins and corral automakers in particular into a position of support for this. Ditto for the poles and wires companies that control the grid. Ross De Rango, EV industry consultant: So the automakers hold one set of keys, the energy networks hold the other set of keys. In order for vehicle to grid to occur, both of those parties need to put the key in the ignition and turn it on. Dan Mercer: We spoke to Federal Climate Change and Energy Minister, Chris Bowen, for this story, and he's certainly keen to see it happen. He was very keen to stress that he would like to see car makers get on board. Chris Bowen, Energy minister: Well, I certainly encourage car manufacturers to get with the programme. Consumers will want this, and I think consumers will march with their feet. If every car in Australia was electric and people were using it to charge their house or their grid, that's equivalent to five snowy hydro schemes, for example. And it's great for consumers because, as I said, it puts consumers more in charge of their resources. The battery in your driveway will, on average, usually be about five times more powerful than the battery in your garage. Sam Hawley: So, Dan, how long do you think it will take before our cars are powering our homes? Dan Mercer: This is a classic example of an idea where there's a disconnect between the rhetoric and the reality. You know, I've been reporting on energy for a while now, and it always amazes me how often I hear people say bidirectional charging is going to solve so many of our problems, and it's a no-brainer, so it's just going to happen, wait and see. But that's a big assumption, and there are big assumptions right through energy and the transition we're going through right now. Of course, there are many seemingly great ideas that never come to fruition in energy and elsewhere because they get mugged by reality. If you listen to the likes of Ross De Rango and Chris Bowen, this is a revolution that's coming. It won't happen overnight, but it will happen. It's just a matter of when. Others aren't convinced. They're just not convinced. Apart from the vested interests of some of these car makers, it's hard to imagine electricity retailers, for example, jumping out of their skins at the idea. Why would they want to pave the way for anything that involves them selling less electricity to you? While those poles and wires companies, they move notoriously slowly. They're heavily regulated. They are heavily bureaucratic. One way or another, there is a tidal wave of new storage that's coming to Australia as battery prices fall and as we get deeper into this transition. And a lot of that is going to be in the cars we drive, for sure. If we can figure out a way of tapping into that fairly and efficiently, then, in theory, everybody wins. Just don't know if you should hold your breath waiting for it, though. Sam Hawley: Dan Mercer is the ABC's energy reporter. This episode was produced by Sydney Pead and Sam Dunn. Audio production by Cinnamon Nippard. Our supervising producer is David Coady. I'm Sam Hawley. Thanks for listening.
News.com.au
8 hours ago
- News.com.au
Relief in sight for homeowners as RBA poised for interest rate cut
The Reserve Bank of Australia is expected to announce its third cut in interest rates, after holding its rate in July despite the ongoing ease in inflation. According to a new Finder survey, 91 per cent of economists believe the RBA will cut the cash rate following its two-day meeting, which begins on Monday, with a 25 basis point cut bringing the cash rate down from 3.85 per cent to 3.60 per cent. The cash rate was held firm last month, with RBA governor Michele Bullock explaining the decision was about 'timing rather than direction', and was waiting on more data to confirm the decreasing inflation. At the end of July, the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) published its quarterly inflation figures, which fell from 2.4 per cent to 2.1 per cent between March and June. Trimmed inflation, also known as underlying inflation, also dropped from 2.9 per cent to 2.7 per cent. Both headlining and underlying inflation rates are now within the RBA's 2-3 per cent target band, indicating inflation is low enough for the RBA to move forward. Mortgage holders are likely to be the biggest winners if the official cash rate is reduced on Tuesday. A homeowner with a $500,000 mortgage are set to save $2884 per year if the cash rate is passed on in full. Fnder head of consumer research Garahm Cooke said the RBA's failure to cut rates lash month was a disappointment for mortgage holders. 'If the RBA doesn't cut next week, they are risking an all-out attack on their legitimacy in the eyes of many homeowners,' he said. 'Last month's decision to hold shocked the market, and we are now seeing a 90 per cent plus certainty of a cut. With inflation well within the target range, there is no reason to hold. 'Banks will be under intense scrutiny to pass on a cut in full,' he said. Despite the overwhelming majority of economists predicting the fall in interest rates, University of Sydney's Stella Huangfu suggested the RBA should hold out for two reasons. 'First, June quarter trimmed mean annual CPI inflation is still 2.7 per cent, which is high within the 2–3 percentage target band and slightly above the RBA's forecast of 2.6 per cent,' she said.
