Rio Tinto’s aluminium smelter at Bell Bay in Tasmania. Photo: Rio Tinto.
Rio Tinto has welcomed a Federal Government announcement of a $2 billion investment to incentivise the use of renewable energy by Australia’s aluminium industry.
The investment will come in the form of tax credits that will support the switch to renewable energy by aluminium smelters before 2036, and facilities will be eligible for support for every tonne of aluminium produced over the next decade.
Aluminium production has traditionally been a high consumer of power, relying primarily on coal-fired power stations for smelters.
The reliance on coal has influenced the location of smelters, with five large bauxite mines, six alumina refineries and four aluminium smelters all located in regional areas including western Cape York, Gladstone and in the Hunter Valley in New South Wales.
Australia is unique in having most or all of its aluminium supply chain located locally, from the raw material bauxite to the coal and the renewable energies used to power the smelters, to the finished products.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese last week said the government’s Future Made in Australia plan was designed to make more things locally.
“Investing in the Australian-made aluminium industry is a massive opportunity – to create well-paid jobs in our regions and suburbs, and set Australia up for the future,” he said.
“We’ve got the resources, the workers, and the know-how – the only thing we don’t have is time to waste.
“If there is a lesson from the pandemic, it’s that Australia cannot continue to be just at the end of supply chains, be vulnerable as a national economy by not making things here.
“We need to be more than a quarry; we need to be a country that value-adds ourselves, not that exports the raw material, waits for someone else to create jobs and value-add and then import the products back.”
Minister for Industry and Science Ed Husic said Australia had to capitalise on having the entire aluminium supply chain in its backyard.
“With an entire aluminium supply chain uniquely located right here in Australia, we’re well positioned to capture the rewards of the global green energy transition,” he said.
Aluminium production is the highest single user of electricity in NSW and Queensland. Photo: Screenshot – Tomago Aluminium Company.
At a media conference at Tomago near Newcastle on 20 January, Rio Tinto Australia chief executive officer Kellie Parker thanked the government for believing in the aluminium industry.
“This has been a long road to find a pathway for the future for aluminium, and I am incredibly proud of the work that my team have done and the aluminium industry has done to work with this government on finding a future, particularly for this smelter here, the best smelter in Australia with the best technology,” she said.
“We’re incredibly pleased with the announcement; this is a belief in manufacturing, it’s a belief in jobs and it’s a belief in the aluminium industry.”
However, Opposition Leader and aspiring prime minister Peter Dutton has poured cold water on the plan, saying it would push up the price of electricity even further in this country.
“The Prime Minister went to the last election promising a $275 reduction in power prices – power prices are up by $1000,” he said.
“Now the Prime Minister is promising the Australian public that their power prices will go even higher and the likelihood of blackouts and brownouts in our country will only increase with this policy announcement.
“It’s not something that we’re going to support and we’re going to make sure that we can get energy prices down.”
Original Article published by Andrew McLaughlin on PS News.
