Global trading firm Glencore has secured a A$600mn ($394mn) aid package from the Australian government to support its Mount Isa copper smelter and Townsville refinery in the country.
The deal provides Glencore with up to A$600mn over three years to continue operations at the plants, invest in upgrades and launch a "transformation study", Glencore Copper Australia's chief operating officer Troy Wilson said on 8 October.
The funds will be provided by the Australian federal government and state authorities in Queensland, where the assets are located.
Glencore placed the Mount Isa and Townsville copper plants under strategic review in April. The company expects to lose A$2.2bn on the two sites over 2025-31 as a base case, it told its staff in Queensland on 23 July.
Glencore's deal with Australian authorities will protect more than 600 jobs at its smelters and a further 500 jobs at Australian fertilizer producer Dyno Nobel's Phosphate Hill project, Australia's industry and innovation minister Tim Ayres said.
Dyno Nobel manufactures 770,000 t/yr of phosphate fertilizers such as DAP and MAP at Phosphate Hill using sulphuric acid — a metal smelting byproduct produced at Mount Isa — as a feedstock.
The company plans to either shut or sell Phosphate Hill by September 2026. But it would struggle to find a buyer for Phosphate Hill without Mount Isa's sulphuric acid supply because of high acid import costs.
Glencore is not the only metal processor facing challenges in Australia. US producer Alcoa permanently shuttered its 2.2mn t/yr Kwinana alumina refinery on 30 September because of the plant's age, high costs, market conditions and bauxite grade issues.
Australian federal and Tasmanian authorities also created a A$135mn rescue package to support global producer Nyrstar's 280,000 t/yr zinc smelter and 160,000 t/yr Port Pirie lead smelter in early August. Nyrstar placed the plants under strategic review in March because of adverse market conditions.
