The Tomago aluminium smelter is located at
Tomago, New South Wales
Tomago is a combined industrial/semi-rural suburb of the Port Stephens local government area in the Hunter Region of New South Wales, Australia. It is located just north of the Hunter River and west of the body of water known as Fullerton Cove ...
,
Australia
Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...
, approximately 13 km west of
Newcastle Newcastle usually refers to:
*Newcastle upon Tyne, a city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England
*Newcastle-under-Lyme, a town in Staffordshire, England
*Newcastle, New South Wales, a metropolitan area in Australia, named after Newcastle ...
, within the
Port Stephens LGA. The smelter has a production capacity of 590,000 tonnes of aluminium (ingot, billet and slab) per year.
It is operated by Tomago Aluminium Company, an independently managed joint venture owned by:
*
Rio Tinto Alcan
Rio Tinto Alcan is a subsidiary of Rio Tinto, based in Montreal. It was created on 15 November 2007 as the result of the merger between Rio Tinto's Canadian subsidiary and Canadian company Alcan.
It is the global leader of aluminium mining and p ...
, 51.55%
* Gove Aluminium Finance Ltd, 36.05% (owned 70% by
CSR Limited
CSR may refer to:
Biology
* Central serous retinopathy, a visual impairment
* Cheyne–Stokes respiration, an abnormal respiration pattern
* Child sex ratio, ratio between female and male births
* Class switch recombination, a process that chan ...
and 30% by
AMP Limited
AMP is a financial services company in Australia and New Zealand providing superannuation and investment products, financial advice, and banking products (through AMP Banking) including home loans and savings accounts. Its headquarters is in Sy ...
)
*
Hydro Aluminium
Hydro from Ancient Greek word ὕδωρ (húdōr), meaning ''water''.
Hydro may also refer to:
Energy technologies
* Water-derived power or energy:
** Hydropower, derived from water
** Hydroelectricity, in electrical form
* "Hydro", AC mains ...
, 12.40%
History
The Tomago plant was started in 1983 using
Pechiney
Pechiney SA was a major aluminium conglomerate based in France. The company was acquired in 2003 by the Alcan Corporation, headquartered in Canada. In 2007, Alcan itself was taken over by mining giant Rio Tinto Alcan.
Prior to its acquisition, ...
AP18 technology. Two potlines with 240
pots each were built and operated at 181 kilo
amperes
The ampere (, ; symbol: A), often shortened to amp,SI supports only the use of symbols and deprecates the use of abbreviations for units. is the unit of electric current in the International System of Units (SI). One ampere is equal to elect ...
(kA) for a production of 240,000 tonnes per year. In 1993, a third AP18 potline with 280 pots was commissioned.
After potline 3 start up, current on the three potlines was 182 kA for a production of 385,000 tonnes per year. In 1998, the potlines 1 and 2 were extended with 20 pots at the end of each room, making 280 cell per line. The production of Tomago was increased by 50,000 tonnes to 435,000 tonnes per year. In 2002 the plant commenced the AP22 project to reach the a line current of 226 kA in 2007.
As at 2017, it is the largest consumer of electricity in
New South Wales
)
, nickname =
, image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg
, map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates:
, subdivision_type = Country
, subdivision_name = Australia
, established_title = Before federation
, es ...
accounting for 12% of total capacity.
Technology
The smelter currently comprises three potlines of 280
Pechiney
Pechiney SA was a major aluminium conglomerate based in France. The company was acquired in 2003 by the Alcan Corporation, headquartered in Canada. In 2007, Alcan itself was taken over by mining giant Rio Tinto Alcan.
Prior to its acquisition, ...
AP18 (AP22) reduction cells each.
See also
*
List of aluminium smelters
This is a list of primary aluminium smelters in the world. Primary production is the process by which alumina is smelted to pure aluminum metal. Secondary production is the process of recycling aluminum scrap into aluminum that can be used again ...
References
External links
Tomago Aluminiumcorporate web site
Aluminium smelters in Australia
Port Stephens Council
Rio Tinto (corporation) subsidiaries
Economy of Newcastle, New South Wales
{{Australia-struct-stub