SA Government talks with Nyrstar over $291m liability ‘productive’, expected to yield a deal within weeks

An agreement to force Nyrstar to repay a deal underwritten by South Australian taxpayers could be struck within weeks, Treasurer Rob Lucas says, after meeting the boss of the metals giant on Monday.

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An agreement that would force Nyrstar to repay a deal underwritten by South Australian taxpayers by set dates could be struck within weeks, Treasurer Rob Lucas says.

The global metals giant’s chief executive Hilmar Rode jetted into Adelaide from Zurich yesterday for two days of talks with the State Government and a Port Pirie smelter visit.

The discussions come just one week after The Advertiser revealed Mr Lucas was “very worried” by news that Nyrstar’s global share price had dropped to a low of 40 Euro cents and a financial analyst urging investors to ditch their shares.

It also followed the company finally revealing 120 employee and contractor jobs would be lost at the Port Pirie smelter, a process that Nyrstar realised they could have communicated better to workers, Mr Lucas said.

The Nyrstar smelter at Port Pirie. Picture: Karen Seindanis

The share price drop off prompted Mr Lucas to say he’d do all he could to protect the $291.25 million of taxpayer money “swinging in the breeze” and yesterday indicated a deal that would force them to adhere to a repayment schedule could be struck in the coming weeks.

Plenty of work still needed to be done before then but taxpayers should feel a small glimpse of optimism because Nyrstar was taking the issue seriously, Mr Lucas said.

“It was the start of a productive discussion, we hope, in terms of achieving two things … a successful resolution to the Port Pirie redevelopment but also protecting taxpayers’ interests,” he said.

“We are negotiating, it’s in the best interests of Nyrstar, which is the reason why Mr Rode has flown from Zurich to come and have a face-to-face discussion here.”

Mr Lucas said the Government and Nyrstar had a shared mutual interest to resolve the dispute, which he said would be seen as an unproductive fight with a sovereign government by Nyrstar.

Nyrstar CEO Mr Hilmar Rode meets Treasurer Rob Lucas at the State Administration Centre. Picture: AAP/Mark Brake

Mr Lucas said Nyrstar had indicated it would again miss a $29 million payment due this month, but could make a smaller interest type payment of $8 million, as it did when it missed an earlier deadline in March. He pointed to a recent improvement in Nyrstar’s share price, which improved to 1.32 Euros at the end of last week, but said the government was still concerned about the future of its operations.

“They don’t employ (wealth management firm) Morgan Stanley and other global operators like that unless they see a very critical issue for their long-term survivability,” he said.

Mr Rode unsuccessfully tried to dodge reporters yesterday, but said his discussions with Mr Lucas were very productive.