UK-owned steelmaker GFG Alliances has placed its Liberty Bell Bay manganese alloy smelter in Tasmania into care and maintenance over manganese ore supply issues, Tasmanian minister for business, industry and resources Eric Abetz said on 19 May.
GFG is committed to the long term success of the Liberty Bell smelter and expects the pause to be temporary, a company spokesperson told Argus on 20 May. The Tasmanian state government is working with GFG and the Australian federal government to address challenges at the plant. It has also asked prime minister Anthony Albanese to support Liberty Bell, state premier Jeremy Rockcliff said on 20 May.
Liberty Bell Bay is Australia's only ferroalloy plant and is permitted to produce a combined total of 290,000 t/yr of ferromanganese and silicomanganese.
GFG sources Liberty Bell Bay's manganese ore from Australian metal producer South32's Australian Gemco mine and South African sites, which have faced recent production disruptions because of bad weather and maintenance shutdowns.
Cyclone Megan flooded and damaged parts of Gemco in March 2024, taking it off line for four months. South32 closed the mine again in January-March 2025 to complete mine dewatering work.
South32 also cut manganese production at its South African operations by 10pc on the year in January-March because of scheduled maintenance work and an unplanned shutdown at its Wessels mine.
Gemco's manganese production is forecast to reach approximately 5mn t in the 2025-26 financial year ending 30 June, the Northern Territory state government said in a budget announcement. South32 has not released its Gemco production guidance for 2025-26.
Liberty Bell Bay's production pause comes after the South Australian state government placed GFG's 1.2mn t/yr Whyalla steelworks into administration in February. The state government later announced plans to transfer control of the Whyalla port from GFG to the steelwork's administrators.
Liberty Bell Bay is one of only six facilities in Tasmania covered under Australia's federal safeguard mechanism. It received 8,762 safeguard mechanism credits (SMCs) for the July 2023-June 2024 compliance year as its covered scope 1 emissions of 196,125t of CO2 equivalent (CO2e) were below its baseline of 204,887t of CO2e.
Two facilities operated by GFG — the Whyalla steelworks and the Middleback Range iron ore mine — ended the compliance year in an excess emissions situation because they were in administration, according to the Clean Energy Regulator (CER).
