00:00Federal Industry Minister Tim Ayres has been at the Port Piri lead smelter this morning with
00:07South Australian Premier Peter Malinowskis. They announced this morning this $135 million
00:12support package. Broken down, that's $22.5 million from the Tasmanian government, $55 million from
00:20SA, and $57.5 million from the federal government. This will keep those doors open to the smelters
00:27in Hobart and in Port Piri. In June, Neerstar said that it needed urgent government intervention
00:33to be able to keep operating and that it was losing tens of millions of dollars a month at
00:38its Port Piri site. Now, this funding will help to modernise both of those plants and to allow them
00:43to be competitive globally. Now, Federal Industry Minister Tim Ayres, he says that the funding
00:48would underpin the first phase of a two-year feasibility study into the expansion of metals
00:54production. Here's what he had to say earlier. The commitment here on behalf of the three
01:01governments is a $135 million plan that takes us well into the first half of 2026 as part of this
01:13plan to build the capability of this plant to modernise and compete for the future.
01:19Neerstar says that this comes at a time of extremely challenging global market conditions and has
01:26blamed some of its struggles on what they say is market distortion by China. So, Neerstar is looking
01:32to expand into these critical minerals, antimony and bismuth at Port Piri and germanium and indium
01:38at Hobart. Part of that involves the creation of a pilot plant at Port Piri for the production of that
01:45antimony, which is a product which is used in munitions and in electronics too. Here's what
01:50Premier Peter Malinowskis had to say about that earlier. To be able to produce antimony, you've got
01:56to be able to have a lead smelter and they are in short supply in the Western world and we are lucky
02:03here in South Australia, we have got one of the few. This investment, according to the state and federal
02:08governments, is crucial to maintaining that smelting capacity in both Port Piri and in Hobart and so that
02:14they can also participate in this future critical mineral supply chain too.
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