By Rhiannon Hoyle
DOW JONES–Glencore will receive up to 600 million Australian dollars, the equivalent of 339 million euros, from the Australian government to keep the Mount Isa copper smelter and the Townsville refinery in the Australian state of Queensland operational for the next three years.
The Swiss raw materials giant also made losses with its smelter and refinery due to the oversupply of smelting capacity caused by China and high energy costs in Australia and therefore declared that the operation would be closed without government support. Glencore has been in discussions over the past eight months with the Australian federal government and the Queensland state government, which will share the cost of the bailout equally.
The support comes as Western politicians worry about China’s dominance in the extraction of many minerals essential to modern technologies and military purposes.
Australian Industry Minister Tim Ayres said on Wednesday that Australia needed to maintain its domestic mineral and metals processing capacity as global production became increasingly concentrated in a single market.
According to a 2024 report by consulting firm Wood Mackenzie, 75 percent of global copper smelter capacity growth has occurred in China since 2000. The People’s Republic now has more than half of the world’s capacity.
Copper demand is widely expected to surge as the metal is used in electric vehicles, renewable energy and data center infrastructure.
The Mount Isa smelter and associated Townsville refinery are “strategic national assets that support Queensland’s copper supply chain and the country’s important minerals strategy,” Glencore said in a statement.
The two operations account for half of Australia’s copper smelting capacity. Mount Isa is the only smelter in the country to process products from local and regional mines and across Australia, Glencore said.
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(END) Dow Jones Newswires
October 08, 2025 01:14 ET (05:14 GMT)
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