The Kalgoorlie Nickel Smelter has closed, under an onslaught of cheap Indonesian and Chinese nickel

[onetrack]

It's the end of an era for the Kalgoorlie region, as the Kalgoorlie Nickel Smelter, containing one of the biggest nickel smelting, flash furnaces in the world, shuts down, due to an onslaught of cheap Asian nickel.

 

Only last year, an expansion of the KNS was planned as demand for nickel from EV's and lithium batteries was thought to be increasing - along with good prices for nickel. In that short space of time, China and Indonesia have flooded the market with cheap nickel, nickel prices have tanked, and these factors combined, have delivered a body blow to the KNS, putting it out of business in record time.

 

I have fond memories of the KNS, I can remember it opening, and spent many years driving past it constantly, although I never worked there. It was a major feature of the W.A. Goldfields for over 50 years, and I made money working as a contractor on numerous nickel mines and leases in the W.A. Goldfields in the 1970's.

 

However, nothing lasts forever, and the nickel landscape has changed dramatically. Luckily for the W.A. Goldfields, there's plenty of mining alternatives, with gold going gangbusters, price-wise, and plenty of gold still being found.

Lithium and rare-earth metals  mining have also come into prominence in the region, so there are still employment choices and stability for the W.A. Goldfields. The EV and battery development world is turning a lot of established industries on their head.

 

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-10-06/closure-of-bhp-kalgoorlie-nickel-smelter-after-51-years/104307662

 

Edited October 6 by onetrack

[ClintonB]

I used to clean there as a job, one trip up in an elevator I had the breathe knocked out of me by the fumes as they poured down below. Not a good experience.

[onetrack]

Yes, the countryside around the smelter was often full of choking smelter smoke, like a bushfire, when the weather conditions were just right - with little wind and a temperature inversion.

[pmccarthy]

Yeah but there was no bugger there so it didn’t matter. Hampton Plains Estate as I recall.