Govt considering $100m nickel plan
Staff reporter Greymouth A proposal for building a sloom nickel smelter in the Greymouth area is before the Government.
The managing director of New Zealand Nickel Smelters (Mr E. J. Smith) said from Auckland yesterday that, if the scheme were approved, the firm might produce its own hydroelectricity, and would use 50,000 tonnes of coal wastes from the Liverpool and Strongman mines.
The nickel would be brought from New Caledonia and slurried ashore from a mono-mooring system. Mr Smith said his company had proved the viability of a mono-mooring system and had entered into separate negotiations with a manufacturer, apart from those
undertaken by West Coast Resources, Ltd, which had considered it as a means of unloading Mount Davy coal. “We are not relying on West Coast resources for the buoy, and at this stage we are going it alone,” he said. The smelter would become an important earner of overseas funds, and would employ nearly 300 people. If the proposal were approved, plans, '.specifications and an environmental-impact report would be available after Christmas, said Mr
Smith. He expects that site development plans will be well advanced by the middle of next year. Mr Smith said that s3m had been allocated for antipollution requirements, and the production would be based on Japanese standards. "We have done our homework, and know that we can overcome all problems relating to pollution,” he said. According to the Press Association, Mr Smith said that the plant would be in full production by 1978.
The process would be in two stages: drying the ere, which would use 1000 tor.nes of coal fines a week; and smelting by arc furnace, which would require a hydro-electric station to be built to supply power. “We have the option of producing our own hydro electricity, as the rivers are available, or we can be supplied from the proposed Buller coal-fired plant, scheduled to come into operation about the same time as ourselves/* said Mr Smith.
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Press, 13 July 1976, Page 2
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331Govt considering $100m nickel plan Press, 13 July 1976, Page 2
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