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PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Aluminium major Alcoa and the federal and Victorian governments are continuing discussions over the future of the Portland smelter, with the state government saying that significant progress has been made.
“All parties are committed to working towards finalising a positive outcome in the very near future,” the Victorian government said on Monday.
The 300 000 t/y Portland smelter has been operating at well below its capacity since December, after power to the plant was temporarily lost when a power interconnector between the states of Victoria and South Australia went down. The outage, which caused molten aluminium to solidify, has raised questions about the Portland facility’s long-term future.
Alcoa’s Australia MD, Michael Parker, last week said that the company remained in constructive discussions with the relevant governments, but was also continuing commercial discussions for a new power supply agreement.
“Since the power outage on December 1, Alcoa and the government have done a great deal of analysis of Portland and our employees, contractors, suppliers, customers and the Portland community can be assured that every possible option is being considered.
“Our goal is for the smelter to be viable in its own right without the need for government support, but clearly in the current environment that remains a significant challenge,” Parker said.
Australian media reports stated last week that the Australian government had offered A$240-million in financial support to assist the Portland smelter.
The Portland smelter employs about 500 permanent employees and 160 contractors and contributes more than A$120-million to the local economy each year in wages and salaries, as well as local supply contracts.