Penrice Soda Products was a company founded in 1935 in

South Australia South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a state in the southern central part of Australia. It covers some of the most arid parts of the country. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories ...

. It was listed on the

Australian Securities Exchange Australian Securities Exchange Ltd or ASX, is an Australian public company that operates Australia's primary securities exchange, the Australian Securities Exchange (sometimes referred to outside of Australia as, or confused within Australia as ...

, named after its quarry near the small town of

Penrice, South Australia Penrice is a small town in the Barossa Valley of South Australia, just north of Angaston. Penrice is the site of a large limestone and marble quarry which was operated by Penrice Soda Products until that company failed. The quarry was bought ...

. It was forced to close its

soda ash Sodium carbonate, , (also known as washing soda, soda ash and soda crystals) is the inorganic compound with the formula Na2CO3 and its various hydrates. All forms are white, odourless, water-soluble salts that yield moderately alkaline solutions ...

production plant in

Osborne Osborne may refer to: * Osborne (name) Places Australia * Osborne, South Australia (disambiguation), places associated with the suburb in the Adelaide metropolitan area * Osborne, New South Wales, a rural community in the Riverina region Can ...

and was placed in

liquidation Liquidation is the process in accounting by which a company is brought to an end in Canada, United Kingdom, United States, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, Italy, and many other countries. The assets and property of the company are redistrib ...

in August 2014.

History

Penrice Soda Products operations were founded by ICI Australia in 1935. The Dry Creek Saltfields and Osborne soda ash plant were acquired from ICI in 1989. The salt fields were sold to Ridley Corporation in 2005. Penrice Soda Products was listed on the

in 2005. It was placed in liquidation in August 2014.

Operations

In addition to its large

limestone Limestone ( calcium carbonate ) is a type of carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of . Limestone forms whe ...

and

marble Marble is a metamorphic rock composed of recrystallized carbonate minerals, most commonly calcite or Dolomite (mineral), dolomite. Marble is typically not Foliation (geology), foliated (layered), although there are exceptions. In geology, the ...

quarry just north of Angaston, it had a number of other establishments in

, including the only

production facility in Australia, located on the

Port River The Port River (officially known as the Port Adelaide River) is part of a tidal estuary located north of the Adelaide city centre in the Australian state of South Australia. It has been used as a shipping channel since the beginning of European ...

in the north-western

Adelaide Adelaide ( ) is the capital city of South Australia, the state's largest city and the fifth-most populous city in Australia. "Adelaide" may refer to either Greater Adelaide (including the Adelaide Hills) or the Adelaide city centre. The dem ...

suburb of

. On 24 June 2014, Penrice Soda Products announced that it would be closing its Osborne plant, and the Angaston quarry was sold to

Adelaide Brighton Cement Adbri, formerly Adelaide Brighton Cement, is an Australian manufacturer of cement, lime and dry blended products. Adbri operates manufacturing and distribution facilities in South Australia, the Northern Territory, and New South Wales. Associat ...

in July 2014.

Transport

Penrice Soda Products was the last company in South Australia to use the

broad gauge A broad-gauge railway is a railway with a track gauge (the distance between the rails) broader than the used by standard-gauge railways. Broad gauge of , commonly known as Russian gauge, is the dominant track gauge in former Soviet Union (CIS ...

rail network in South Australia with

Genesee & Wyoming Australia One Rail Australia is an Australian rail freight operator company. Founded by Genesee & Wyoming Inc. in 1997 as Australian Southern Railroad, and later renamed Genesee & Wyoming Australia, it was renamed One Rail Australia in February 2020 aft ...

operating the

Penrice Stone Train The Penrice Stone Train was a limestone train in South Australia that operated from the Penrice Quarry near Angaston on the Barossa Valley line to Penrice Soda Products' soda ash factory in Osborne in Adelaide's north-western suburbs, and the ...

from the Penrice Quarry on the Barossa Valley line to Penrice Soda Products' soda ash factory in Osborne. It ceased operating in June 2014 when the Osborne factory closed. Penrice Soda Ash Plant

Soda ash plant

The company's soda ash plant at

used steam from the

Osborne Power Station The Osborne Power Station is located in Osborne, a northwestern suburb of Adelaide, South Australia. Current Today's Osborne Power Station is natural gas powered with one gas turbine and one steam turbine that together generate 180 MW of ele ...

, making that establishment Australia's biggest

cogeneration Cogeneration or combined heat and power (CHP) is the use of a heat engine or power station to generate electricity and useful heat at the same time. Cogeneration is a more efficient use of fuel or heat, because otherwise- wasted heat from elect ...

facility. The soda ash plant used salt from the St Kilda lagoons which was (normally) harvested in autumn and piped as a saturated brine solution under the Port River to the plant, and limestone from its Angaston quarry was transported to the plant by the

. Using ammonia, these raw materials were converted to soda ash by the

Solvay process The Solvay process or ammonia-soda process is the major industrial process for the production of sodium carbonate (soda ash, Na2CO3). The ammonia-soda process was developed into its modern form by the Belgian chemist Ernest Solvay during the 1860s. ...

. By-products discharged to the Port River included calcium chloride, ammonia, and insoluble residues, known as "calsilt". which required periodic dredging to avoid blocking the shipping channel.Naughton, Kevin
Penrice leaves a pile of problems for SA
''InDaily'', 25 June 2014. Retrieved 26 November 2020.

References

{{Reflist Companies based in South Australia Companies formerly listed on the Australian Securities Exchange Non-renewable resource companies established in 1935 Australian companies disestablished in 2014 Chemical companies established in 1935 Australian companies established in 1935