Proposal For Public Issue By Comalco

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31728, 11 July 1968, Page 28

Proposal For Public Issue By Comalco

(New Zealand Press Association) WELLINGTON, July 10. New Zealanders would get a chance to invest in the aluminium project in Southland, the Minister of Industries and Commerce (Mr Marshall) said today.

The question of New Zealanders investing in the project had been discussed with Comalco, at present a private company. Within the next few years Comalco intended to make a public issue. “We have an understanding with Comalco that when a public issue is made a block of shares on a New Zealand register will be available for New Zealand investors," he said. Government officials say the best prospects for New Zealand investors would not be in the operating company for the smelter but in Comalco. Comalco mines the world’s biggest bauxite deposits, at Weipa, in north-eastern Australia. Most of the bauxite is then processed into alumina at the world’s biggest singlestream alumina plant at Gladstone, Queensland, in which the biggest stakes are held by Kaiser and Alcan of Canada.

At present most of the alumina goes to North America for further processing, which is the most expensive part of the manufacture of aluminium. By establishing a smelter at Bluff, Comalco will get a substantial grip in the integrated aluminium Industry, where the biggest money lies.