AUKUS approval strengthens defence market access
Summary by AI BETAClose X
11 November 2026
Gelion plc
(“Gelion”, “Company” or the “Group”)
AUKUS Approval Strengthens Defence Commercialisation Pathway
Approval supports defence technology collaboration across Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States.
Gelion is seeking to replace the critical minerals in current Lithium-ion battery cathode materials with the Company’s Nano-Encapsulated Sulfur (NES™), a material that is low cost and designed to drop-in to existing global manufacturing lines. Gelion’s NES™ is made from sulfur, which is abundant, mining-free, and free from supply chain constraints.
Gelion plc (LSE: GELN), the sulfur battery technology company, is pleased to announce that its Australian subsidiary, Gelion Technologies Pty Ltd, has been approved by the Australian Department of Defence as an AUKUS Authorised User and enrolled to access the AUKUS Licence-Free Environment (“LFE”).
Approval as an AUKUS Authorised User helps to expand market access by reducing potential export licensing frictions and can shorten qualification cycles with defence partners in Australia, the UK and the US.
AUKUS is a trilateral security partnership between Australia, the UK and the US and the AUKUS LFE is designed to facilitate defence trade and technology collaboration between the three countries. Subject to applicable eligibility criteria and pre-notification requirements, the LFE removes the requirement to obtain individual Australian export permits for eligible Defence and Strategic Goods List (“DSGL”) products, technology and services transferred between AUKUS countries.
Key Highlights
- AUKUS Authorised User: Gelion Technologies Pty Ltd has been approved by the Australian Department of Defence to access the AUKUS LFE.
- Regulatory Infrastructure: Facilitate eligible defence related transfers between Australia, the UK and the US, subject to the applicable criteria and pre-notification requirements.
- Defence Commercialisation: Supports Gelion’s engagement with defence customers and partners, accelerating market access across priority AUKUS markets by reducing potential administrative friction.
This approval is seen as instrumental for supplying major AUKUS defence programmes, because defence customers increasingly prefer suppliers that can operate inside the AUKUS licence-free environment. As Gelion advances the commercialisation of NES™ for defence and other high-performance applications, the approval forms an important component of the regulatory infrastructure required to support the Group’s engagement with defence customers, and industry partners across all three AUKUS markets.
Strategic Significance
Defence is a strategically important market for Gelion’s NES™ technology, particularly for applications requiring a combination of high energy, high power and improved safety The AUKUS approval complements the Group’s existing defence-related development and validation programmes by strengthening its ability to engage in eligible defence technology collaboration across the AUKUS markets. It has the potential to simplify administrative barriers and enable more efficient eligible technology collaboration with major defence contractors.
The approval does not itself determine whether a particular Gelion product, technology or service is DSGL-controlled or eligible for the LFE. Each proposed transfer will remain subject to the applicable classification, eligibility, end-user, location and pre-notification requirements.
Matt Wood, Gelion CEO commented: “Approval as an AUKUS Authorised User is an important step in establishing the regulatory infrastructure to support Gelion’s growing momentum in the defence sector.
“With our partners, we have demonstrated that our NES™ cathode active materials is a great fit for defence applications, and the AUKUS framework is designed to enable closer collaboration on strategically important defence technologies across Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States. It provides a valuable framework through which we can pursue opportunities for NES™ across these priority markets as we continue to develop defence as an important commercial market for Gelion.”.
For more information, please visit Next-Generation Sulfur Battery Technologies | Gelion or contact:
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Gelion plc
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via Tavistock |
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Strand Hanson Limited (Nominated and Financial Adviser)
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+44 (0) 20 7409 3494 |
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Oberon Capital (Joint Broker)
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+44 (0) 20 3179 5300 |
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Allenby Capital Limited (Joint Broker) Jos Pinnington / Lauren Wright (Sales and Corporate Broking) Alex Brearley / Ashur Joseph (Corporate Finance)
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+44 (0) 20 3328 5656 |
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Tavistock (Financial & Corporate PR) |
+44 20 7920 3150 |
About Gelion
Gelion plc (LSE: GELN) is an advanced battery materials company developing next-generation cathode technologies for lithium-ion and lithium-sulfur batteries. Its proprietary Nano-Encapsulated Sulfur (NES™) cathode active material is designed to replace conventional critical-mineral cathodes with abundant sulfur, delivering higher energy density while remaining compatible with existing battery manufacturing infrastructure.
The Company's strategy is to commercialise NES™ through partnerships with leading industrial companies and battery manufacturers, enabling adoption within established global supply chains across automotive, defence, device and other high-performance applications. Gelion works with Tier One industrial partners including TDK & Mitsui Kinzoku (Japan), QinetiQ and Nissan (UK), Top 15 Global Automotive Manufacturer, Top 5 Global Automotive Manufacturer, and National Laboratory of the Rockies (NLR) (US), and Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces (MPI) (Germany).
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