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In a week of wins for the ASX-listed Adisyn (ASX: AI1), the company has capped off a major research milestone with the Israel Innovation Authority (IIA) formally approving the completion of its graphene R&D program. The final tick not only validates the company's cutting-edge work on low-temperature graphene deposition but also unlocks the remaining $100,000 tranche of a $520,000 grant, covering half the cost of the $1.04 million project.

This isn’t your garden-variety tech rebate. The IIA is globally recognised for its stringent funding criteria, and its backing amounts to a high-grade endorsement of Adisyn’s technology—a process that could very well redefine semiconductor interconnects.

Through its Israeli subsidiary 2D Generation, Adisyn has been developing an ALD (Atomic Layer Deposition)-based technique to lay graphene films directly onto semiconductor wafers at low temperatures. Why is this significant? Because traditional graphene manufacturing has demanded high heat—north of 900°C—making it incompatible with mainstream chip fabrication processes. By solving this thermal dilemma, Adisyn positions itself at the bleeding edge of materials science and silicon innovation.

According to Chairman Kevin Crofton, the IIA nod “represents more than funding—it is a strong endorsement from one of the world’s most credible innovation agencies.” He also noted the synchrony between the final grant approval and the recent arrival of Adisyn’s new ALD system—adding momentum to the company’s transition from lab-based validation to real-world relevance.

Beneq ALD System to be installed at 2D Generation R&D facility

For a refresher, the ALD system in question landed at 2D Generation’s R&D facility just last week. Manufactured by Finnish firm Beneq, the system complements another Beneq TFS 200 already in use at Tel Aviv University through a strategic partnership. With dual systems now operating, Adisyn can accelerate testing across various metal and non-metal surfaces, aiming to evaluate graphene’s role in enhancing signal integrity, reducing heat, and boosting electron mobility at nanoscale dimensions.

And there’s no lack of ambition. The goal is to outclass copper—the current industry standard for interconnects—by offering up to 200x higher electron mobility, lower resistive heating, and improved compatibility with sub-5nm geometries. All of this matters a great deal to sectors like AI, high-performance computing, and 5G, where data must travel fast, cool, and reliably.

The backdrop to these developments is a semiconductor industry eyeing a trillion-dollar valuation by 2030. In this context, Adisyn’s focus on interconnects—often the limiting factor in chip performance—is both strategic and timely.

Adding to the company’s credentials, its R&D alliance with imec, Europe’s foremost semiconductor research hub, gives it both gravitas and validation. Imec has previously pointed out that while graphene is promising, an industrial process for direct deposition onto interconnects remains elusive—until now, potentially.

From an investor’s lens, this might be small-cap ambition with large-cap implications. With a market cap of just $35.4 million and $9.5 million in the bank as at 31 March 2025, Adisyn has runway and resolve. It’s not just building tech; it’s building credibility, brick by patented brick.

What comes next is critical: the commissioning of the new ALD system, followed by a pipeline of experimental results expected to test—and hopefully confirm—the industrial viability of their graphene play. If successful, the company could leap from the speculative to the scalable.

For now, Adisyn has done what few in deep tech manage: turn an R&D grant into a validation event. And in a market where credibility is often the hardest currency to earn, that’s a meaningful deposit.

In a move that effectively signals the end of MPower Group (ASX: MPR) as a clean energy platform, the company has inked a binding agreement to sell its renewable energy business to Sydney-based Wollemi Energy Group for approximately $19 million.

The transaction includes nearly all of MPower’s operational footprint: its core renewable platform, the Lakeland Solar & Storage Project, a pipeline of future projects, its services business, and other related assets. If approved by shareholders, it will see MPower emerge as a cashed-up shell with around $3.8 million in surplus cash post-transaction and a rebrand to “MPR Australia Limited.”

MPower CEO Nathan Wise summed up the strategic pivot bluntly: “The time has come for the next phase of growth under new owners who can bring greater financial capacity.” In short, while MPower has made strides developing distributed solar and battery assets, capital constraints have clipped its ability to scale. Wollemi, a climate-focused investment firm with deeper pockets, now takes the reins.

The purchase price—$19 million cash, with $2 million deferred for six months—is not just a lifeline but a premium. The implied net asset value post-deal equates to 1.1 cents per share, a 37.5% lift on the prior day’s closing price and a 43.2% bump to the 30-day volume-weighted average.

All existing MPower staff will be offered employment with Wollemi, ensuring continuity of operations. Meanwhile, the company expects to settle its outstanding liabilities and be left with capital for a possible shareholder return or backdoor listing. It’s a sharp about-face from its decade-long journey as a power systems and renewable microgrid innovator.

Shareholders will get a say at a general meeting on 16 July 2025. ASX Listing Rule 11.2 requires shareholder approval for the disposal of a main undertaking—an apt label in this case. The board has unanimously backed the deal and will vote its shares in favour, absent a superior proposal.

But it’s not without caveats. The sale is contingent on a laundry list of conditions, most notably the re-energisation of the Lakeland Solar & Storage Project, which is currently undergoing transformer repairs. Completion is expected by 12 August, pending successful handover of key contracts, employee transfers, and clean technical sign-off on the transformer from Ampcontrol and Ergon Energy.

Wollemi, meanwhile, is building a reputation as an active investor in Australia’s low-carbon economy. Its acquisition of MPower’s assets is a consolidation play, giving it operational scale and a ready-made pipeline of distributed energy projects in the increasingly policy-favoured small-scale renewables space.

For MPower shareholders, the sale raises a fundamental question: where to from here? The company has flagged three options post-sale—returning capital to shareholders, pursuing a new business acquisition, or a hybrid of both. If it doesn’t make its next move by 11 December 2025, ASX will suspend its shares pending further clarity.

For now, MPower is unplugging from its namesake business, effectively handing the keys to a better-resourced player. Whether the shell becomes a cash box for a new venture or a dividend vehicle for patient investors remains to be seen. Either way, it’s the end of an era—and the beginning of something else entirely.

Adisyn Ltd (ASX: AI1) is turning up the voltage on its semiconductor ambitions, announcing the delivery of a state-of-the-art Atomic Layer Deposition (ALD) system to its wholly owned subsidiary, 2D Generation. This high-spec bit of kit isn’t just lab bling—it’s a key pillar in the company’s grand plan to commercialise its proprietary low-temperature graphene deposition process.

The Beneq-manufactured system, now housed at 2D Generation’s Israeli research facility, adds firepower to Adisyn’s growing R&D arsenal. It will run in parallel with another Beneq TFS 200 ALD unit already installed at Tel Aviv University’s Jan Koum Center for Nanoscience and Nanotechnology, part of a strategic partnership announced in March.

With these twin labs now operational, Adisyn is well-placed to chase a tantalising goal: demonstrating that it can reliably produce high-quality graphene films at temperatures friendly to existing semiconductor fabs—something that’s eluded researchers for years.

Chairman Kevin Crofton, never one to miss a PR beat, framed the milestone as a leap toward bridging the chasm between blue-sky science and commercial reality.

“With this advanced capability up and running, we can aggressively pursue the validation of our graphene interconnect technology across multiple dimensions: material science, engineering integration, and industry compatibility,” Crofton said.

It’s not just about plugging in a shiny new machine. The company has also completed a major infrastructure upgrade at its Israeli facility, ensuring it can host such precision equipment. Think high-grade electrical systems, strict temperature and humidity controls—the sort of environment you’d expect to see in a Bond villain’s lab, but built for semiconductors.

The capital outlay has been considerable. After putting down a deposit in November last year, Adisyn has now paid roughly AU$600,000 to Beneq for the delivery milestone, with another AU$150,000 due upon successful commissioning. These sums were accounted for in a capital raising announced back in January, underscoring the board’s commitment to funding deep tech R&D.

Why all the fuss over graphene interconnects? As chip geometries shrink beyond the 5nm threshold, traditional materials are reaching their physical limits in conductivity, heat dissipation, and signal integrity. Graphene, that wonder material du jour, promises a path forward—if only it can be reliably tamed in an industrial setting.

Adisyn’s experiments will include testing how graphene layers adhere to various interconnect surfaces, how uniform the atomic layers are, and how they perform under real-world semiconductor process flows. The company will also examine composite structures combining graphene with metal layers to enhance both electrical and thermal performance.

For now, investors will have to wait for the commissioning to wrap up before the real data starts flowing. But with two ALD systems humming and a roadmap of IP development underway, Adisyn has entered what it clearly sees as the next phase in proving out its technology.

This is a deep-tech bet, make no mistake. It’s far from the plug-and-play world of SaaS and recurring revenue. But for those tracking the intersection of graphene and semiconductors, Adisyn’s play is worth watching—not least because they’re trying to solve some of the industry's thorniest miniaturisation headaches.

As the chips get smaller, the stakes get larger. And for Adisyn, it’s now a matter of turning promise into process—and ultimately, into product.

In a significant milestone for homegrown biotech Radiopharm Theranostics (ASX:RAD), the company has officially kicked off human dosing in its first-in-human Phase 1 trial of 177Lu-RAD202, a radiotherapeutic aimed squarely at HER2-positive advanced cancers. Dubbed the ‘HEAT’ trial – an acronym more evocative of a Top Gun sequel than a clinical study – the program signals Radiopharm’s full evolution from R&D hopeful to clinical-stage contender.

The trial marks the first time patients have been dosed with RAD202, a radiolabelled nanobody targeting HER2, a well-established oncological villain expressed in breast, gastric, ovarian, pancreatic and bladder cancers, among others. The ‘open-label’ dose-escalation study will assess safety, tolerability, and initial signs of efficacy, while also hunting down the optimal dose to take into Phase 2.

"This milestone marks our transition to a clinical-stage company," said CEO and Managing Director Riccardo Canevari. “Despite progress in HER2-positive therapies, many patients still face progression or intolerable side effects. RAD202 could offer a more effective and tolerable alternative.”

The science behind the promise is no shot in the dark. A previous diagnostic trial using the same HER2-targeting nanobody – labelled with 99mTc instead of lutetium-177 – demonstrated both safety and tumour-specific uptake in ten HER2-positive breast cancer patients. This early proof-of-concept, combined with preclinical data showing therapeutic impact in HER2-positive xenograft models, laid the groundwork for the current HEAT study.

“We’re privileged to be the first site to administer 177Lu-RAD202,” said Dr Aviral Singh, Clinical Head of Theranostics and Nuclear Medicine at Perth’s St John of God Murdoch Hospital. “It opens up a novel therapeutic avenue for patients with aggressive tumours, many of whom are running out of options.”

The dosing event follows years of strategic development and underscores Radiopharm’s ambition to stake its claim in the burgeoning radiopharmaceuticals space – a field that’s rapidly heating up as oncologists seek out precision tools to target tumours without lighting up healthy tissues.

Radiopharm’s broader clinical program includes three other Phase 1 trials and one Phase 2, spanning an arsenal of radiopharmaceuticals based on peptides, small molecules, and monoclonal antibodies. The goal? Precision oncology with fewer trade-offs – and ideally, more durable responses.

Listed on both the ASX (RAD) and NASDAQ (RADX), Radiopharm remains one of the few Aussie biotech plays with a foot in the high-potential, high-complexity world of radiotheranostics – a field once considered niche but now squarely in the sights of big pharma.

For investors keen on oncology moonshots, Radiopharm’s HEAT trial could prove a thermometer worth watching. The company will need to demonstrate not only safety but also a compelling signal of efficacy to stand out in the increasingly competitive HER2 arena. Yet if the preclinical and diagnostic clues bear out, RAD202 might just turn up the temperature on standard care.

In a coup for clean-tech metallurgy and geopolitical strategy alike, MTM Critical Metals (ASX: MTM) has unveiled a headline-grabbing achievement: a 98% recovery rate of antimony (Sb) from U.S. electronic waste using its proprietary Flash Joule Heating (FJH) technology. Even more tantalising is the grade of the recovered material—3.13% Sb—eclipsing global primary mine averages and putting some of the world’s largest deposits to shame.

Antimony may not grace many investor pitch decks, but it’s a strategic metal with critical uses in munitions, semiconductors, and flame retardants. More pertinently, the United States produces little to none of it domestically, relying heavily on China, which controls roughly 70% of global refining capacity. MTM’s breakthrough, then, doesn’t just offer commercial upside—it reads like a strategic manifesto for U.S. supply chain resilience.

The tested feedstock—legacy printed circuit boards from telecom equipment and servers—had undergone upstream thermal processing to remove plastics, leaving behind a metal-rich char. When subjected to FJH processing, this “urban ore” revealed antimony content of 31,340 g/t, more than triple the grade found at China’s Xikuangshan mine, the world’s largest Sb producer.

CEO Michael Walshe sees this as a validation of MTM’s tech and timing. “Achieving 98% recovery of antimony at over 3% grade, from domestic urban feedstock, is particularly significant given the U.S. currently has no meaningful domestic Sb production,” he said. “With antimony designated as a critical metal by both the DoD and DoE, these outcomes reinforce MTM’s ability to contribute to onshore supply solutions.”

The announcement rides on the back of two recent strategic wins. First, MTM has secured a pre-permitted five-hectare site in Chambers County, Texas, to host its 1 tonne-per-day FJH demonstration plant, targeting a commissioning date by the end of 2025. Secondly, the company has successfully validated its commercial-scale FJH crucible, de-risking its scale-up path and suggesting throughput could exceed initial projections.

This trinity of breakthroughs—tech validation, site readiness, and a critical metal recovery result—amounts to a triple threat for competitors and a potential boon for MTM’s valuation. The site, with existing infrastructure and permits, not only slashes CAPEX but also puts MTM on the fast track to production, and critically, positions it as a linchpin in America's reshoring agenda for critical metals.

The timing couldn't be more fortuitous. Benchmark antimony prices have surged—now north of US$60,000/t for metal and US$38,000/t for trioxide—as China tightens its grip on exports amid rising geopolitical friction. With the U.S. generating around seven million tonnes of e-waste annually and recycling rates languishing below 25%, MTM’s FJH process offers a ready-made solution to convert urban detritus into strategic resources.

Beyond the lab, MTM has already inked long-term agreements for 1,100 tonnes per annum of e-waste feedstock from U.S. recyclers, ensuring supply continuity as it scales. The company is also engaging with the Department of Defense and Department of Energy for potential funding support, reflecting growing official interest in domestic critical metal processing.

As Walshe succinctly put it, “We are well positioned to scale operations and advance commercial deployment.” Given the strategic context, technical results, and infrastructure readiness, MTM might just be sitting on the right pile of junk—if such a term can still apply to circuit boards that rival Chinese mines in metal content.

With the reactor ready, the site locked, and a metal that ticks every geopolitical and economic box, MTM is not just mining the future—it’s recycling it.