'No current plans' to restart potline 4 at smelter: Rio Tinto

Friday, 7 August 2020

Rio Tinto, owner of the Tiwai Point aluminium smelter near Bluff, has announced the plant will close at the end of August 2021.

Rio Tinto has rejected reports it may be preparing to restart one of the potlines at the Tiwai Point aluminium smelter after closing it down during lockdown.

The smelter owner closed potline 4 – a production line for the conversion of alumina into aluminium – to ensure it could cope with the restrictions needed at the plant due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

A media report on Friday said staff at the smelter were believed to have told contractors to prepare for the fourth potline to be operating in September.

However, a Rio Tinto spokeswoman told Stuff it had ‘’no current plans’’ to restart potline four.

She declined to comment further.

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A spokeswoman for Meridian Energy, which supplies electricity to the smelter, said it had no prior knowledge of the ‘’speculative comments’’ about potline 4.

The suggestion the fourth potline may be restarted came as a surprise to many, given Rio Tinto has announced it will close the smelter in August 2021.

The company has said the business is no longer viable, given its high energy costs and a challenging outlook for the aluminium industry.

The closure would result in the direct loss of 1000 jobs, with 1600 jobs indirectly connected to the smelter also under threat.

Since the closure announcement, Southland leaders have been pushing for the smelter to remain open for another five years at least, so other industries can get established in the region to soften the blow.

Gore District Mayor Tracy Hicks, chairman of the Southland mayoral forum, last week requested an urgent meeting with Government ministers in Wellington to discuss the issue.

The Southland leaders believed they had options the Government could pick up to ensure the smelter kept producing, and the jobs retained, for another five years at least, he said.

On Friday, Hicks said he had received a response ‘’indirectly’’ from Wellington and he was hoping to meet Energy Minister Megan Woods and Finance Minister Grant Robertson, but a date had not been set.

Southland’s three mayors and perhaps other leaders would go to Wellington to push their case, he said.

Meridian Energy has put a staged exit offer to Rio Tinto to support the smelter to leave in a more orderly fashion, its spokeswoman confirmed.