Point Henry smelter

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The wharf and unloader at Point Henry

The Point Henry aluminium smelter is located near Geelong, Victoria in the suburb of Moolap. The smelter has a production capacity of 185,000 tonnes of aluminium a year.^[1] It is operated by Alcoa World Alumina and Chemicals Australia, a join venture between Alcoa (60%) and Alumina Limited (39.25%).^[2]

1 Production
2 History
3 Electricity
4 See also
5 References

[edit] Production

Alumina is brought in by ship and unloaded at a dedicated pier, and approximately half of this finished aluminium is sold to the neighbouring Alcoa Australia Rolled Products plant, where aluminium is rolled into sheet for can manufacture.^[3] The remainder of the aluminium is despatched by road as ingots. Around 1000 people are employed at the Point Henry plant.

[edit] History

Construction of the smelter at Point Henry commenced in 1960 by the Cavalier Construction Company. Smelting commenced in 1962, with full production commencing in April 4 1963.^[4]

[edit] Electricity

The initial electricity supply to the smelter was a 220 kV transmission lines from the Geelong Terminal Station direct to the smelter. When production started, the maximum power demand of the smelter was 39.76 MW. By June 1964 it was 68.38 MW, and by October 1964 76.6 MW - more than the entire Geelong region's demand. November 1965 it was 78.88 MW, February 1967 79.84 MW, and 140 MW by 1969.^[5]

On March 20 1969 Alcoa's own brown coal fired Anglesea Power Station was brought on line.^[6] Of 150 MW capacity, the power station is connected to the smelter by around 30 km of high voltage transmission lines, and is used to augment the supply from the Victorian electrical grid.

The current power demand of the smelter is 360 MW for a 185,000 tonne production capacity, of which approximately 40 per cent is met by the Anglesea power station.^[7] The Point Henry smelter, along with the smelter at Portland, use 18 to 25 per cent of Victoria's electricity production.^[8]