Rio Tinto Limited
(ASX:RIO) subsidiary Pacific Aluminium is considering curtailing production at its alumina refinery at Gove in the Northern Territory.
The decision has attracted political backlash, with Northern Territory Chief Minister Adam Giles saying he’s disappointed the company has chosen to scare its employees by discussing curtailment of its Gove refinery before all its options have been exhausted and a final decision has been made.
In February, former Country Liberal Party chief minister Terry Mills announced a deal to keep the refinery open by releasing 300 petajoules of gas to help it with running costs.
But in July, Mr Giles said the deal had never been signed and instead made a series of offers, first for 195 petajoules, then for 175 petajoules, and now says there's an additional 30 petajoules available from a potential mobile gas facility from 2015.
But Mr Giles said Rio Tinto executives have admitted their issues with the refinery aren't about the terms of the gas offer but the scale of financial losses over the past five years.
Rio Tinto delivered a net profit of $1.8 billion in the first half of fiscal 2013.
