Selected CSIRO media mentions for the week commencing 6 July. If you encounter a paywall, request a text version by emailing the article title here.
CSIRO research on deep sea mining raises eyebrows – Mining the depths of the ocean for precious minerals might seem like a far off industry of the future, but it’s closer than you think. New CSIRO research has assessed the environmental impact of the controversial proposal. The research was funded by a mining company, which is some in the science and conservation community concerned… ABC The World Today, 4 July 2025 (link, text below)
CSIRO guide aims to turn around high failure rate of AI projects – Hundreds of billions of dollars are spent on AI annually, yet up to 80 per cent of projects fail to meet their goals according to a new AI “playbook” released by the CSIRO… Region Canberra, 8 July 2025 (link, text below)
CSIRO releases Richmond River flood mapping – Australia’s chief science agency, the CSIRO, has released a long-awaited report with data and flood modelling for the Richmond River Catchment… The Echo, 2 July 2025 (link, text below)
Australia’s $36B low carbon fuel opportunity – A domestic low carbon liquid fuel (LCLF) industry could contribute up to $36 billion to the economy and reduce emissions by 230Mt by 2050 – but only if Australia acts promptly, according to a new report published by the Clean Energy Finance Corporation… Energy Magazine, 8 July 2025 (link, text below).
Astronomers hunt for strange signals and discover something unexpected in Earth’s orbit – Astronomers using Australia’s ASKAP radio telescope were scanning the skies for mysterious cosmic signals – fast radio bursts, known in the trade as FRBs – when they picked up something odd. It wasn’t deep space calling. The signal, detected by the powerful antennas of the Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder, was steady, artificial, and strangely Earth-like… AS USA, 8 July 2025 (link, text below).
—
ABC The World Today, 4 July 2025
Andy Park: Mining the depths of the ocean for precious minerals might seem like a far off industry of the future, but it’s closer than you think. New CSIRO research has assessed the environmental impact of the controversial proposal. The research was funded by a mining company, which is some in the science and conservation community concerned, as Myles Holbrook-Walk reports.
Myles Houlbrook-Walk: The depths of the ocean remain a largely mysterious place.
Jessica Meeuwig: The areas that we’re talking about of interest to deep sea mining lie 4,000 to 6,000 metres below the ocean surface. So it’s very far and it’s very dark.
Myles Houlbrook-Walk: Professor Jessica Meeuwig is from the University of Western Australia and is the director of the Marine Futures Lab. She says what happens to the ocean floor could have flow-on effects.
Jessica Meeuwig: We’ve got massive migrations of animals that move from these super deep waters up to the surface. There’s a carbon pump, a nutrient pump, and by disturbing essentially what are the old growth forests of the deep sea, it’s not clear how it’s going to affect the rest of our ocean ecosystems, which are already under pressure.
Myles Houlbrook-Walk: Curiosity about this part of the earth goes beyond the realm of science. Canadian mining business The Metals Company has paid Australia’s National Science Agency, the CSIRO, to see how environmental impacts of deep sea mining could be assessed. Jessica Maywig has reservations about the nature of this research. Among her concerns are the potential impact on nodules, which are mineral concentrations on the seabed formed of iron and manganese hydroxides around a core.
Jessica Meeuwig: You know, they have to rely very heavily on assumptions and numerical modelling. And there are a lot of unknowns in their modelling, which means that it’s highly uncertain. But if you go back to first principles and we talk about serious harm, one of the definitions of activities that cause serious harm is that the damage is not naturally reversible. Now, given that it takes 100,000 years to grow a nodule that supports all this biodiversity, removing those nodules means you’re looking at another 100,000 years at a minimum.
Myles Houlbrook-Walk: In April, US President Donald Trump signed an executive order to open both US and international waters to deep sea mining, ignoring a global treaty that controls the high seas. At present day, there’s no large scale deep sea mining operations anywhere in the world. Phil McCabe from the Deep Sea Conservation Coalition wants it to remain that way.
Phil McCabe: This is planned for the Pacific Ocean where Pacific Island governments, Pacific Island states are highly dependent on tuna fisheries for their economies.
Myles Houlbrook-Walk: Dr Piers Dunstan is the CSIRO’s Senior Principal Research Scientist. He says the research should not be interpreted as an endorsement or rejection of deep sea mining.
Piers Dunstan: We found that the impacts of water returned to the ocean after mining, which is known as the return plume, are really dependent on the depths of discharge and the vertical connectivity. On the sea floor, our research shows that there are substantial local impacts from the effects from different mining operations.
Myles Houlbrook-Walk: At least 35 countries have signed on to a moratorium on deep sea mining. Australia is yet to do so.
Andy Park: Myles Houlbrook-Walk there.
—
Region Canberra, 8 July 2025
Hundreds of billions of dollars are spent on AI annually, yet up to 80 per cent of projects fail to meet their goals according to a new AI “playbook” released by the CSIRO.
The Evaluating and prioritising artificial intelligence projects: A guide for better decision making and investment outcomes report aims to help businesses inform investment decisions when integrating AI into projects.
According to the report, there is a simple reason why so many projects are failing.
“While various factors contribute to this high failure rate, a primary driver is the initial decision-making process – specifically, choosing the wrong AI projects in the first place,” the report said.
Lead author and strategic foresight expert Dr Stefan Hajkowicz says many organisations are investing in the wrong projects, with up to 80 per cent of AI projects failing.
For a suitable project the investment opportunity of AI is “unprecedented” but not every project is suitable.
The CSIRO’s guide has compiled a nine-category checklist to help businesses assess whether a project is truly a good fit for AI.
Businesses are advised to ask themselves a range of questions, from complex analysis of strategic alignment to simple questions like: is appropriate data available and accessible?
“The frameworks outlined in this guide – from financial appraisals and cost-effectiveness analysis to stakeholder consultation and portfolio management – provide proven methodologies for making these crucial decisions,” the report said.
Despite the high failure rate, investment in AI continues to grow and is predicted to reach more than $980 billion annually in the next three years.
Canberra-based AI company Trellis Data has seen this rush to AI first-hand.
CEO Michael Gately said: “Too often deploying AI is the objective, but the objective should always be to realise benefits, those benefits should be the driving force behind the use of AI.
“Where organisations don’t have the deep tech expertise in AI, partnering with the right AI experts becomes a key enabler in achieving success.”
It’s a point the CSIRO highlighted in its report, that success in AI rollout required integrating people, processes and existing technologies.
Mr Gately encouraged businesses not to be discouraged by the apparent high costs and failure rates associated with AI. He said when it’s used correctly, there’s no substitute for it.
“The right combination of AI can be a powerful tool to create efficiencies and save time. AI has to be truly integrated into the way a business functions to realise complete benefits,” he said.
“This includes understanding how the AI operates, the ability for the AI to explain its decisions, as well as the security of the customer’s data.”
The report said businesses that mastered implementing AI would have a significant edge over competitors in the future.
CSIRO Executive Director Professor Elanor Huntington said to navigate this transition, all businesses needed was proper evaluation.
“With the right evaluation frameworks in place, we can reduce the number of failed projects and direct investment where it will have the most impact,” she said.
—
The Echo, 2 July 2025
Australia’s chief science agency, the CSIRO, has released a long-awaited report with data and flood modelling for the Richmond River Catchment.
Lismore City Mayor Steve Krieg says it’s pivotal moment for Lismore and the Northern Rivers.
The council issued a media release in response to the new information calling on the federal government to fund any recommended associated works and for a national insurance funding pool.
‘We call on the Australian Government to fund the implementation of CSIRO’s forthcoming mitigation recommendations,’ the media release read.
‘The cost of the 2022 flooding disaster in this region alone has reached an estimate $16 billion and is expected to rise further, not to mention the human impact.
‘For a region that has experienced 129 floods in 150 years, investment in resilience is a no brainer.’
Northern Rivers Resilience Initiative informs infrastructure spending
The federal government commissioned the $11.4 million Northern Rivers Resilience Initiative (NRRI) in response to the 2022 flood and landslides disasters, with the program’s second phase aimed at finding community-supported solutions for flood mitigation and resilience investment.
The first phase happened from July to November 2022 and was a rapid review and assessment phase analysing the most effective intervention options for allocation of $150 million in federal funding.
The CSIRO says it consulted with residents and councils in each of the seven flood-affected Local Government Areas of Ballina, Byron, Clarence Valley, Kyogle, Lismore, Richmond Valley and Tweed before submitting two reports and a full list of project recommendations to the National Emergency Management Authority (NEMA) on 30 November 2022.
The first sixteen projects subsequently announced on 23 February 2023 were budgeted at a combined $50 million.
Funds were invested in upgrades to pumps and pump stations in Lismore, a new pump system in East Murwillumbah and new box culverts through a riverbank levee in Grafton.
Another twenty projects totalling $100 million were announced on 28 July 2023.
These included raising two low bridges at Tatham for improved access between Casino and Coraki during floods and widening the Browns Creek flood channel at Lismore.
‘Unfavourable weather’ delays flood mapping data collection
The second phase of the NRRI featured planes with Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) technology to inform spatial analysis for the Northern Rivers and boats collecting river bathymetry from the Richmond and Tweed rivers and parts of the Brunswick.
There were significant delays to the LiDAR collection, the CSIRO says, owing to ‘unfavourable weather conditions across the region over the last year’.
The CSIRO says the LiDAR and Bathymetry datasets became publicly available on 28 June 2024 through the Geoscience Australia Elvis website and have been essential inputs for a detailed hydrodynamic Richmond River catchment model.
Scientists reportedly spent hundreds of hours building the model, described as unique in its ability to reproduce extreme flood events such as in 2017 and 2022 and peer reviewed by three independent international experts.
‘The hydrodynamic model has been developed and implemented for five historical flood events in the Richmond River catchment,’ information from the CSIRO’s website states.
‘The model accurately represents water flow, depth, and velocity across the Richmond River catchment (more than 7000 km²).’
CSIRO community consultation: August 2025
The CSIRO says scientists will test and investigate more flood mitigation options for the Northern Rivers using the new hydrodynamic model in preparation for another report to be delivered to NEMA in June 2026.
Mitigation options are be chosen in conjunction with community and state, federal, and local government, with residents in the catchment able to provide input through consultation sessions.
The CSIRO says more information is to come about planned face to face events to be held in the region from August and online.
A technical report on the recent NRRI Richmond River catchment work phase two was made publicly available on 30 June 2025 via NEMA’s website.
—
Energy Magazine, 8 July 2025
A domestic low carbon liquid fuel (LCLF) industry could contribute up to $36 billion to the economy and reduce emissions by 230Mt by 2050 – but only if Australia acts promptly, according to a new report published by the Clean Energy Finance Corporation (CEFC).
The report, Refined Ambitions: Exploring Australia’s Low Carbon Liquid Fuel Potential, found that LCLFs are crucial to Australia’s net-zero future, particularly for sectors such as aviation, mining, heavy freight and defence, where electrification is challenging.
It was commissioned by the CEFC and developed by Deloitte, in consultation with industry participants, investors, researchers and government stakeholders.
CEFC CEO, Ian Learmonth, said LCLFs are a present-day necessity for sectors that can’t electrify.
“If we get the settings right, Australia can lead in clean fuels innovation and production – not just supply the feedstocks.”
Learmonth said Australia has all the ingredients to be a clean fuel superpower – abundant feedstocks, world-class research, and growing demand.
“Policy accelerators, including mandates, certification schemes and offsets, are key components to assist the industry reach scale. The first movers will reap the rewards of this global market.”
The report’s key findings include:
It points to earlier CSIRO modelling that indicates that Australian feedstock could produce billions of litres of LCLFs annually by 2050, utilising existing land and practices without impacting food production.
The CEFC said its report aligns with the Federal Government’s Future Made in Australia agenda, showing how clean fuel production can bolster sovereign capability, create regional jobs and meet climate targets.
CEFC Executive Director, Rupert Maloney, said, “We export the raw materials but miss the opportunity to build the industry here at home. This is about regional development, national resilience, and emissions reduction, all at once.”
Despite the growing momentum and a pipeline of more than two billion litres in proposed projects, the report found that Australia’s LCLF industry faces significant structural, financial, and regulatory challenges.
It found that the cost of production remains higher than that of conventional fuels, while the lack of national mandates has limited investor confidence and demand certainty.
Additionally, the report found that emerging fuel technologies require further R&D and de-risking before they can be commercially deployed at scale. The report identified key hurdles:
To close the gap between potential and reality, the report outlines an actionable framework to help scale Australia’s LCLF industry.
The roadmap focuses on enabling market demand, lowering investment risk, supporting innovation, and coordinating the value chain, drawing on proven models from clean energy and international biofuel markets.
With the correct settings in place, the CEFC said that Australia can unlock a globally competitive and sovereign clean fuels sector. To take advantage of this opportunity, the report details seven key steps:
Maloney said with the right market signals and collaboration, Australia can build a globally competitive clean fuels industry and lead the region in climate-era innovation.
“Clean fuel plants could revitalise manufacturing hubs and create skilled careers in some areas hit hardest by the decline of fossil fuels,” he said. “But we need investment commitments this decade to avoid missing the window.”
—
AS USA, 8 July 2025
Astronomers using Australia’s ASKAP radio telescope were scanning the skies for mysterious cosmic signals – fast radio bursts, known in the trade as FRBs – when they picked up something odd. It wasn’t deep space calling. The signal, detected by the powerful antennas of the Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder, was steady, artificial, and strangely Earth-like.
What did astronomers hear from deep space?
Initially dismissed as interference, the signal persisted. And when scientists from the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) followed up, they tracked the source – not to a distant galaxy, but to a previously unknown satellite orbiting Earth.
“We weren’t expecting to find anything in Earth’s orbit with this setup,” Dr. John O’Sullivan of CSIRO told CNN. “But the signature was clear, it was broadcasting in the same band we use to hunt for distant signals.”
The satellite, now dubbed ‘Relay 2,’ is thought to be either a long-defunct communication satellite or a covert military craft. Its existence was never registered with the UN or publicly documented.
Why is this discovery raising questions?
The find has sparked speculation about the number of unregistered satellites currently circling Earth. In theory, all active satellites must be registered for safety and accountability. Yet this detection suggests otherwise.
It’s also a reminder that as space gets more crowded, distinguishing human-made signals from genuine cosmic phenomena is getting harder. “We may be mistaking more Earth-based signals for extraterrestrial ones than we think,” said Dr. O’Sullivan.
Oh well, maybe next time…