00:01Heath Williams had been hoping for a positive outcome ever since Liberty Bell Bay went into limited operations last year.
00:10I was just waiting to be told to hit the button and turn the furnace back on.
00:15But he's now coming to terms with the news that he and nearly 200 colleagues are losing their jobs
00:22after the manganese smelter's administrator announced its immediate closure because a prospective buyer fell through.
00:30The not knowing an outcome was the hard part and yeah it's here so we'll be right.
00:41The closure will also affect suppliers like Don Beams whose quarry has supplied the smelter for almost 50 years.
00:49We've had our hopes up and sort of like a like really it was like a loss in the family
00:54yesterday.
00:55He says it will have a big effect on his company's annual revenue.
01:00It's been up to four me and like with the way inflation goes it would be so that's substantial for
01:05a small business.
01:06As the local community looks to the future the state government has announced funding for a 10-day training program
01:13to help up to 40 smelter workers find new jobs.
01:17This is about nationally recognised qualifications that will get them into building and construction straight away.
01:24Questions remain about why the sale fell through.
01:28Unions and the Labor opposition claim the price of a power deal with the state owned Hydro Tasmania was partly
01:35to blame.
01:36But the government says it did everything it could.
01:39Liberty Bell Bay has been offered concessional power pricing as part of the restart.
01:45So the total support package is in excess of $150 million.
01:50That's from our small state.
01:51Another question is what will happen to this site in the long term.
01:55A report last year estimated it could cost about $200 million to remediate in the event of a permanent closure.
02:03Which could prove a major financial liability for the state government if the administrators can't pay for the clean up.
02:11So there's funds for mining but this particular site doesn't have the same kind of protections.
02:18It is an older historic site and there is significant rehabilitation if it does come to that point.
02:26Workers are expected to get an update from the administrators about their redundancy entitlements on Monday.
02:35Vaccine Motivation Association
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