ALUMINIUM INDUSTRY

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30529, 26 August 1964, Page 10

ALUMINIUM INDUSTRY

Concern At Expansion (N.Z. Press Assn.—Copyright) LONDON. Aug. 25. The expansion of the Australian aluminium industry was a little frightening, says the “Financial Times” mining correspondent He asked: “Where will all Australia’s aluminium go?” Could a home be found for Australia’s full aluminium potential, based on almost limitless resources of thb raw material, bauxite? Already, in barely a decade, production had satisfied domestic requirements, he said. Expanding or new plants in Queensland. Tasmania and West Australia would have no apparent marketing problems because the foreign interests behind those projects, and exports to Japan, would absorb most of the production. But further huge tonnages of bauxite in the Northern Territory Were still to be exploited. The,Australian Government had “grandiose development plans” for the area, involving a cost of more than £BO million.

That would put Australia “firmly into a world export market that is a fiercely competitive one owing to bauxite being one of the most plentiful of the earth’s mineral resources,” the correspondent said.