By PAUL MILLAR
A MOOLAP operation pinning its hopes of survival on processing Alcoa’s landfill will close its doors next month.
Alreco, employing up to 25 workers, would have been guaranteed several years of work if it secured the right to process three landfills.
Sources said the company could have doubled or tripled its workforce if it had been given the opportunity to process the hazardous materials containing aluminium salt slag and spent potline materials.
MHM Metals, of which Alreco is a subsidiary, has revealed that the “landfill will remain in situ” even though the Environment Protection Authority has yet to make determinations about cleaning up the massive Point Henry site.
Alreco will close its doors on February 13.
Iain Kirkwood, chairman of MHM Metals, said in a stock exchange announcement: “We wanted to secure the future of the Moolap operation by processing the Alcoa landfill.
“However this opportunity did not materialise and we are very disappointed for all stakeholders, especially our plant employees at Moolap, who will likely have to look for alternative employment in the New Year.”
Keeping Alreco’s plant at Moolap open relied solely on processing Alcoa’s landfill, however, the AGM was told that the landfill ‘’would remain in situ”.
A spokeswoman for the EPA said clean-up work at the site has not started through the use of any regulatory tools at this stage.
“The first stage in which the authority manages such clean-ups, is to obtain documentation of what is known about the site and the associated risks, with the intention to then move onto developing formal and well managed clean-up plans,” she said.
The EPA issued Alcoa with a draft clean up notice last December in which it proposed requirements to assess the site and develop a plan detailing actions to clean up waste and contaminated soil, sediment, surface water and groundwater from the smelter site.
Alcoa has until 19 January to provide comments on the draft notice to the authority before a final notice is issued to ensure the agreed works are completed.
Environment minister and member for Bellarine, Lisa Neville, said the job losses were disappointing and she would be contacting Regional Development Victoria to see if it could tap into the expertise of the processing company in any other way.
