{"id":49939,"date":"2026-05-27T11:39:41","date_gmt":"2026-05-27T11:39:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/49939\/"},"modified":"2026-05-27T11:39:41","modified_gmt":"2026-05-27T11:39:41","slug":"miner-rio-tinto-bags-au2-billion-in-10-year-commitments-for-aluminum-smelter-in-australia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/49939\/","title":{"rendered":"Miner Rio Tinto Bags AU$2 Billion in 10-Year Commitments for Aluminum Smelter in Australia"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"MT MT Newswires -Shutterstock <\/p>\n

Rio Tinto (RIO.L) on Wednesday said the Queensland and Commonwealth governments of Australia agreed to back its over 40-year-old aluminum smelter in the country with a combined AU$2 billion investment over 10 years, securing the facility’s long-term future.<\/p>\n

The government funding will be received through 2040 to ensure aluminum production at the mining company’s majority-owned Boyne smelter in Gladstone beyond the 2029 validity of the current power contract. <\/p>\n

The “landmark partnership,” which follows power purchase agreements by Rio Tinto to underwrite AU$7.5 billion in new renewable energy and storage in Queensland, will guarantee the Boyne smelter remains internationally cost-competitive beyond 2029, the group said. The deal also bolsters the federal government’s Future Made in Australia initiative.<\/p>\n

Operating since 1982, the Boyne smelter is the second-largest aluminum smelter in Australia. Rio Tinto owns 73.5% of the asset, while YKK Aluminium, UACJ, and Southern Cross Aluminium hold interests of 9.5%, 9.29%, and 7.71%, respectively. <\/p>\n

“As fossil fuels become increasingly expensive, this investment, combined with the power purchase agreements we have already signed, positions Boyne to be among the world’s first aluminium smelters underpinned by solar and wind power,” Rio Tinto Aluminium & Lithium Chief Executive J\u00e9r\u00f4me P\u00e9cresse said. “It also ensures heavy manufacturing like aluminium smelting can continue in Gladstone for the long term and preserves one of the few fully integrated aluminium value chains in the world – from bauxite mining to alumina refining to aluminium smelting all in Queensland – as demand for aluminium continues to grow with the energy transition.”<\/p>\n

Rio Tinto also committed to offtake 40% of the Lower Wonga solar and battery hybrid project of BP’s (BP.L) solar arm, Lightsource bp, raising its contracted renewable power to over 2.8 gigawatts in the state of Queensland.<\/p>\n

The mining company’s London stock was up nearly 1% at midmorning trade.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MT Newswires -Shutterstock Rio Tinto (RIO.L) on Wednesday said the Queensland and Commonwealth governments of Australia agreed to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":21447,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[20718],"tags":[25051,583,25053,21094,21470,12991,25052],"class_list":["post-49939","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rio-tinto","tag-aluminum-smelter","tag-australia","tag-boyne-smelter","tag-power-purchase-agreements","tag-queensland","tag-rio-tinto","tag-rio-tinto-aluminium"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@UnitedKingdom\/116646351134029143","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49939","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=49939"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49939\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21447"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49939"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49939"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49939"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}