Re: Aluminium Smelter at Lithgow.

[G.Lambert@unsw.edu.au (Geoff Lambert)]

mauried@commslab.gov.au (Maurie Daly) wrote:

>I didnt quite hear all the news story about this which was on the ABC late 
>news last night 9/12/98, but it seemed to be talking about a large new smelter 
>to be built at Lithgow , with rail providing the transport for the raw 
>materials from Pt Kembla .
>Seemed to depend on the consortium getting cheap (code for free) electricity 
>from the State Govt.
>Anyone know more about this , like who is it , and where ultimately does the 
>raw material come from , (Weipa ??)

I thought I heard them say "Pechiney" as the company, but this doesn't
really sound likely.  If the stuff is to come from Gladstone, Comalco
sounds more likely.

Carr said that an amount of $19million (or was it $9 million?) was to
be spent on a feasibility study.  He said 2,000 jobs would be
involved.  If this is really true, and he is talking about the
operational phase, it would imply about a 1500 MW plant, which would
be worth at least 3 machines at Point Piper, which is where I assume
the electricity would come from and why they chose "Lithgow"- proably
actually closer to the generators rather than in Lithgow itself- who
wants to inhale fluoride all day?

Geoff Lambert