Rio Tinto Taking HIsmelt Plant Offline for Year

Rio Tinto and its joint venture partners will be taking their HIsmelt pig iron plant in Kwinana, Western Australia offline for 12 months. The company cited depressed global pig iron prices and sluggish markets as the reason for the move. The plant is expected to reopen by April 2010.

Sam Walsh, Rio Tinto’s Iron Ore CEO, said, "This is a tough decision, but unfortunately one that relates directly to the current market conditions and the uncertainty of a market recovery in the near term."

"We retain every confidence in the viability of the HIsmelt technology, which is proven and successful, and we remain hopeful for an upswing in the market to enable a restart in the future."

The Kwinana HIsmelt plant uses a direct smelting technology to smelt high phosphorous iron ore fines and non-coking coal to produce a premium grade iron product. It has operated in Western Australia since 2006.

The plant is 60 percent owned by Rio Tinto. Other owners of the plant include Nucor, which owns 25 percent; Mitsubishi Corp., 10 percent; and Shougang Corp., 5 percent.