00:02Australia's only manganese smelter, and a major Tasmanian employer, slips further into
00:08crisis.
00:10White Oak, a major lender to Sanjeev Gupta's GFG alliance, has put the Liberty Bell Bay
00:15smelter into voluntary administration.
00:18Administrators from Ernst & Young aim to restructure or sell the company and its assets.
00:24Having Gupta out of the picture will allow a sale to happen much quicker and that process
00:30we already know there's interested parties.
00:32The smelter employs more than 200 people and has been in care and maintenance mode since
00:38last May.
00:39GFG says the smelter has faced a challenging 20 months due to issues with its main ore supplier,
00:45a significant deterioration in market conditions and rising costs.
00:50Federal Industry Minister Tim Eyre says his current priority is now on ensuring workers
00:56and local suppliers receive appropriate support and assistance.
01:00The Tasmanian Government is among those owed money.
01:04It loaned the smelter $20 million last year to buy ore, which hasn't been used.
01:10Manganese is a critical mineral, it's a key part of Australia's sovereign steel manufacturing
01:16supply chain and so it's an important national industrial asset.
01:21This follows a long period of financial instability for Liberty Bell Bay.
01:26The corporate regulator ASIC recently filed with the NSW Supreme Court to wind up the business
01:32process for failing to lodge financial statements.
01:36The Australian Workers Union says this process is better.
01:40A liquidation process, we would be concerned, could lead to the permanent closure of the site,
01:49whereas an administration process holds out the hope of a future.
01:54A future that's still uncertain for hundreds of workers.
01:57A future that's frozen.
01:57A future that draws depreciation to the central communal appliance to protect theा Representative
02:00An murderer Lord kowre
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