Australian premier announces $1.7B bailout for aluminum smelter

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on Thursday announced an A$2.5 billion (approximately $1.7 billion) bailout over 10 years for the largest aluminum smelter in the country.

"The idea that we sit and allow this facility to just disappear would have had consequences. We cannot afford to be at the end of supply chains. We need to be a country that makes things," he said in Tomago in the Hunter Region of New South Wales, where Tomago Aluminium Smelter is located, according to a statement.

The owner, Rio Tinto, said last year that it was considering ceasing operations at the smelter at the end of its current electricity supply contract in 2028.

The package will be shared 50-50 between the federal Labor government and the New South Wales Labor government, alongside additional investment from Tomago in its future, Albanese said.

Tomago Aluminium CEO Jerome Dozol said that Tomago and its owners would invest A$1.1 billion in the facility to secure its future.

Albanese argued that the arrangement would deliver additional clean energy for New South Wales and Australia, as well as secure manufacturing jobs.

"There is no question that aluminum is such an essential product to be produced, because it goes into everything else that is manufactured in this country, just about," he said.