High prices of electricity coupled with unreliability of supply have cast doubt on the future of two of Australia’s largest aluminium smelters, Portland and Tomago (Newcastle), which convert alumina into the high-value metal aluminium. Aluminium smelters require vast quantities of electricity to reduce aluminium oxide to molten aluminium metal by electrolysis. Alcoa’s Portland smelter was opened in 1986 as a showcase of downstream processing of minerals in Australia. To guara…
