Seeing as Rio Tinto has done the dirty on NZ – shouldn’t we repay the favour by nationalising the smelter and running it ourselves?
NZ will still needs aluminium made as environmentally sustainable as possible – we could market it as ‘Green Aluminium’.
We could save the 2600 jobs at risk and see it is a strategic asset.
Under normal free market conditions purists would scream ‘No’, but with the pandemic raging and likely to erode the foundations of neoliberalism, the free market is dead.
If Rio Tinto are going to abuse us with such spite, all possible responses should be considered.
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I only have the facts as presented in the news and press releases from the company but it would seem that they lost $71 million in 2019 and the site has been for sale since 2011 .For years it gave the area well paid work but the company is not a welfare agency so if it is not making money it is obvious it has to close.
Exactly my thoughts NATIONALISE it for a $1.00 .
Yes we remember when Winston announced the NZ First policy to make rules around wether any overseas company can pull out of NZ ‘without penalties’.
This was exactly why Winston put that policy in place.
So it will be interesting if labour just goes easy on Tio Tinto by offering public funding to keep these corporate ratbags here or not.
I believe we need to Re -Nationalise these industries now if they leave.
No
It would cause too much uncertainty among other multi national companies operating in New Zealand.
Perhaps we should offer to buy it as a going concern for a walk away price. I hope that there is a stringent decommissioning clause in Rio Tinto’s operating contract and they might welcome the chance to walk from that.
We would need to ensure we had long term contracts in place for the supply of bauxite. But this government couldnt buy some magazines so I am not hopeful
Absolutely and pay the workers a wage subsidy to provide needed security while the plant changes owners to make sure they don’t relocate all the trained staff during the interim.
I would be tempted to run the plant at a loss and steal as much market share from Rio Tinto as possible, two can play this game and it is about those at the top felt some of the pain they like dishing out.
Hear hear. It’ll cost a lot just to pay for the unemployment, so may as well buy the going concern for a $1 NETT (!!!!) and sell ALL environmental economic production at below market rate, to sell it all.
We should buy the site back, then tear most of it down, and then repurpose it to recycle plastic. Keeping it running as a smelter would be a waste of money.
StandAlone – Yes! That would not only “work”, it would solve one of NZ’s all-time worst problems – the one that successive govts keep avoiding, sending it off shore, pretending it doesn’t exist.
We have mountains, literally, of toxic waste of all kinds that our govts wash their hands of – Time for them to take responsibility for this and deal with it!
And here, waiting for them, is the solution. If they don’t take this opportunity now, they’ll have to build something similar to do so in the future.
Even if nationalised, NZ would still need to buy the raw materials from overseas and then re-export and who would it have to buy from? Rio Tinto and similar multi-nationals. The net benefit of the smelter is a lot lower than the gross figures on exports suggest. Its very tough on Southland, but I read analysis that showed NZ as a whole would be better off without it – I am trying to find that analysis
Hey, the NZ public have just been gifted a major hydro elec system to add to the grid. Never mind that it was technically already ours. Its product can now be put to much better use for all NZers than it has been.
Southland have had five decades to prepare for this inevitability, so, sorry if they’re surprised.
Tio Tinto are trying to get rid of other locations of their dirty operation the press now said, one in Iceland or some other far away site so be shouldn’t be surprised.
‘NZ will still needs aluminium made as environmentally sustainable as possible – we could market it as ‘Green Aluminium’.’
There is no such thing ‘Green Aluminium’.
Firstly, the bauxite ore is dug up and transported to refining facilities using diesel-powered machinery.
Secondly, extremely nasty caustic soda and extremely nasty sulphuric acid are using in humungous quantities in the refining.
Thirdly, the refined bauxite is shipped from Australia to NZ using oil-powered ships -noted for their filthy emissions because low-quality, high-sulphur ‘dregs’ are used as fuel, on the basis no one will notice when ships are at sea. Strange that the seas and oceans of the world notice (not).
Fourthly, without the drain on the electricity system the aluminium smelter amounts to, much less natural gas (a carbon dioxide emitting fuel when burned) would be used in NZ to generate electricity…around 13%, I believe.
Fifthly, the smelting process uses yet more nasty chemical, particularly fluorides which escape into the atmosphere. Other wastes, in the solid form, are disposed of via ‘recycling’.
Sixthly, during the smelting the carbon electrodes burn away rapidly, resulting in significant greenhouse gas emissions.
And seventhly, the aluminium ingots produced at Ti Wai Point are transported by diesel-powered machinery to places of extrusions (primarily McKecknie, Bell Block, near New Plymouth) where further energy is used to soften the aluminium for extrusion. After which, diesel-powered machinery is used to transport the extrusions to window manufacturers and other users.
Or the ingots are sold on the world market and transported (via filthy international shipping) overseas, some of the aluminium ending up close to where the ore was mined in the first place.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aluminium_smelting
The reason the smelter was built in NZ was because Australia lacked (and still lacks, of course) the hydro systems that supposedly generate cheap electricity…if you don’t count the emissions commensurate with construction, the loss of land and the slow filling up behind the dam, which increases methane emissions and eventually renders the dam unless the sediment is dredged out.
So many false assumptions.
But let’s face it, this is about industrialism, and humans living apart from nature and destroying nature, rather than being a part of nature and living sustainably within the constraints of natural systems.
If should be needless to say, but I have to keep repeating it: industrialism is unsustainable and is in the process of collapsing.
The big question is, how much MORE damage to the natural systems that make life-as-we-know-it possible are industrial humans prepared to do before the system collapses (due to energy depletion, resource depletion, and the accumulation of waste?
It seems that industrial humans will “keep doing it till they can’t”, as I have said so many time before.
Just as politicians will keep promoting destruction of the environment until they can’t, it seems.
Daily CO2
Jul. 8, 2020: 415.47 ppm
Jul. 8, 2019: 410.76 ppm
Apologies.
I wish I could spot the errors before posting!
‘Secondly, extremely nasty caustic soda and extremely nasty sulphuric acid are USED in humungous quantities in the refining.’
‘The reason the smelter was built in NZ was because Australia lacked (and still lacks, of course) the hydro systems that supposedly generate cheap electricity…if you don’t count the emissions commensurate with construction, the loss of land and the slow filling up behind the dam, which increases methane emissions and eventually renders the dam USELESS unless the sediment is dredged out.’
The big question is, how much MORE damage to the natural systems that make life-as-we-know-it possible are industrial humans prepared to do before the system collapses (due to energy depletion, resource depletion, and the accumulation of waste?
We’re teetering on the edge right now..
(or maybe we’ve already crashed and just haven’t woken sufficiently from the coma to realise it)
100% right with you.
But most of the public can be confused by a few glib but untrue statements.
Buy for $1.00 – take charge of the problem without further delay – threaten the aluminium company NZ Aluminium Smelters with legal difficulties unless they co-operate. Then we can deal properly with the mass of by-product ‘dross’ and the ouvea pre-mix that when mixed with water produces toxic ammonia gas!
Some history, facts:
2017 – https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/99823372/solution-found-for-hazardous-substance-stored-in-southern-buildings-liquidator – The ouvea premix, which can produce the highly corrosive ammonia gas if it gets wet, remains sitting in sheds at Mataura, Invercargill and Awarua, with public angst over the issue simmering….
Ouvea premix, an oxide residue, which is a waste by-product of the aluminium making process at the Tiwai smelter, was owned by Taha Asia Pacific which had planned to turn the product into fertiliser.
But Taha Asia Pacific went into liquidation 15 months ago after its contract with NZAS to process the ouvea premix expired and was not renewed.
With the premix sitting in the buildings, liquidator Rhys Cain said a fortnight ago a plan was being worked on to remove it offshore…
Environment Southland chairman Nicol Horrell asked Chapman [Cherie Chapman, Invercargill Dross Action Group], to inform Environment Southland staff if she knew of other locations it was stored.
2019.July.12 – https://www.stuff.co.nz/southland-times/southland-top-stories/114187575/deal-signed-to-move-ouvea-premix-from-southland-warehouses – … The removal of ouvea premix is scheduled to begin under a contract secured by the Gore District Council.
The premix, a class 6 hazardous substance, releases poisonous ammonia gas when wet. It was left in warehouses in Southland after Taha Asia Pacific, which was storing the substance without resource consent at Mataura and Awarua, went into liquidation in 2016.
The contract with Australian-based company Inalco Processing Ltd will see the removal of 22,000 tonnes of the substance from sites in Mataura and Invercargill during the next six years.
2019.July 25 – https://www.stuff.co.nz/southland-times/news/114493454/deal-for-1500-tonnes-of-hazardous-substance-to-be-removed-from-mataura – …Earlier this month, the Gore District Council announced an agreement had been signed for with Australian-based company Inalco Processing Ltd, which “will see the removal of 22,000 tonnes of the substance from sites in Mataura and Invercargill over the next six years”…
Only 1500 tonnes of the 10,000 tonnes of ouvea premix being stored in the former paper mill building at Mataura will be moved in the next 12 months…
[A report from Gisborne District Council chief executive Stephen Parry said], “This lower rate of removal is due to the need for the purchaser to experiment with the processing at 13 Tiwai Point to ensure that it irons out any teething problems in its quest for converting the ouvea premix into a recognisable product in the marketplace.
“Thereafter, the agreement envisages 4500 tonnes per annum being removed which if achieved will see the Mataura premises fully cleared of the ouvea premix within a three-year period.”
2020.Feb – https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/119289272/concerns-about-toxic-substance-being-stored-at-mataura – The Southland District Mayor Gary Tong categorically denies there had been any ammonia leaks at the paper mill in Mataura today.
And, EMS civil defence controller Angus McKay said claims that were was ammonia gas inside the building on Wednesday were “speculation and rumour”.
A volunteer, who was sand bagging inside the Mataura papermill on Wednesday morning and contacted Stuff, stands by their comment they were driven out by ammonia gas after floodwaters entered the building.
2020.July.6 – https://www.stuff.co.nz/environment/122029470/environment-court-proceedings-on-ouvea-premix-begins
A decision on the proceedings was expected before the end of the year, he said.
New Zealand Aluminium Smelters Limited’s (NZAS) aluminium processing produces a by-product called dross, which can be subjected to an aluminium recovery and recycling process. One of the outputs of that process is ouvea premix, which has potential use in fertiliser manufacturing and steel production.
The smelter has already contributed $1.75 million to a six-year, $4m deal which will see all the premix moved to Tiwai Point, where it will be further processed by Inalco Processing Ltd. The premix at Mataura is being moved first because of the significant risks posed to both the environment and people by having the premix stored next to the Mataura River.
2020.July.9 – https://www.stuff.co.nz/environment/122086491/departing-nzas-told-it-must-live-up-to-environmental-responsibilities
[Environmental Defence Society chief executive Gary Taylor] said: The society believes its upcoming court action seeking New Zealand Aluminium Smelters to be held accountable for the safe disposal of smelter dross is all the more important in light of the company’s signalled demise.
The society is also concerned about the standard of remediation – a requirement to leave the land on the Tiwai site itself in a condition as close as practicable to how it had been before the smelter was built.
NZAS has estimated it will take $250 million to meet these obligations. Taylor said the testing work and negotiations would need to be robust and well-scrutinised given the potential differences between the original “theoretical’ consent conditions and ‘’another look at it in the cold light of day in 2021’’.
Fucking contracts and slipping out of responsibility, not worth the dross that they are written in!
NZAS denies ownership of the premix, having entered into a contract with a processing company, Taha Asia Pacific that later went belly-up, its liquidators disowning the remaining material.
Feet are obviously being dragged with Court cases and judgments being delaying tactics rather than delivering proper responsible action. The problem is immense and these mining companies are totally unable to deal with the toxic results of their activities apart from covering them with concrete or such and sailing off to other money-making ventures. If it can’t be covered or surrounded by a bund wall, then what? Does anyone with half a brain think that NZ Aluminium Smelters which last year in their accounts, showed a loss of $50million or such is going to pay out $250 million to remediate the site. Cheaper to plant a few native trees and flaxes for the look of the thing, and fight the reality in Court until we are exhausted.
As Geoff says buy it for $1 and make sure it is done, and maybe keep one line of pots or whatever going, even if we can just make a tiny profit. It would be part of our basic resources.
This on google about aluminium and its uses and advantages/disadvantages. And remember we already have a disadvantage, the dross. Here are some links about that:
# https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aluminium_dross_recycling
# 2014-http://www.stuff.co.nz/southland-times/10466803/Safety-of-fertiliser-premix-queried
# 2014-http://www.stuff.co.nz/southland-times/news/10400912/Contaminant-handling-advice-misinterpreted
# 2016-https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2405653716300306 – Investigation of concrete produced using recycled aluminium dross for hot weather concreting conditions
# https://www.researchgate.net/publication/279586565_Review_of_aluminum_dross_processing
# https://worldwidescience.org/topicpages/a/aluminium+dross+waste.html
# https://www.science.gov/topicpages/a/aluminium+dross+waste
1 …because aluminium itself is not particularly strong. Alloys with copper, manganese, magnesium and silicon are lightweight but strong. https://www.rsc.org/periodic-table/element/13/aluminium
2 http://www.aalco.co.uk/datasheets/Aluminium-Alloy_Introduction-to-Aluminium-and-its-alloys_9.ashx
3 https://www.mckechnie.co.nz/capabilities/technical-specifications/technical-information/aluminium-in-architecture.html
4 https://www.austenknapman.co.uk/blog/commercial-metal-use/5-most-common-applications-of-aluminium/
5 https://www.thyssenkrupp-materials.co.uk/uses-of-aluminium.html
6 https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-25020651
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