$23m project at Nyrstar’s Port Pirie lead smelter to reduce lead emissions, company says
Nyrstar will build a $23m facility bigger than five Olympic swimming pools at Port Pirie – which it says will reduce its lead emissions.
Nyrstar will build a $23m product recycling facility at its Port Pirie smelter, which the company says will reduce the amount of lead in the air by a quarter.
The State Government will contribute $7m towards the new facility, which will create 75 jobs during the construction phase, with preliminary works expected to start early next year.
Nyrstar vice president Australian operations Dale Webb said the new facility would be sealed and “under negative pressure’’, greatly reducing the possibility for lead-bearing dust to be emitted.
The company’s Port Pirie smelter is one of the largest lead smelting facilities in the world and claims to be the third largest silver producer.
Efforts to reduce blood levels of lead in children in the town have met with limited success over the years however, with 2020 figures for two-year-olds coming in at 7.3 micrograms per decilitre (100ml) of blood. The result was the highest level recorded since 2011 when a new testing program was introduced.
SA Health attributed the higher-than-average results to an “extended period of high lead emissions between 2016 and 2018” and dusty weather.
The new facility adds to other lead-abatement measures announced by the government recently, including a $2.5 million program to upgrade 43 Housing SA dwellings with young children in the areas at greatest risk of exposure, and an $875,000 greening program.
Mr Webb said the new facility would be a major improvement.
“Our process for storing, mixing and transporting minerals around the site will be improved fundamentally and will work together with other improvements already in place to deliver a sustained reduction in lead in air in our local community,” he said.
“This project will fundamentally change how we do business because it’s about 6880 sqm, it will be under vacuum, and it will allow us to reduce our material movement on site by about 60 per cent, so that in itself will reduce the amount of dust.
“And then currently we store intermediate products outside. We have controls in place but the reality is, nothing will compare to having it indoors.’’
Minister for Energy and Mining Dan van Holst Pellekaan said reducing lead in air “requires a comprehensive approach that involves Nyrstar, the local council and the community working with the State Government to deliver a multi-pronged solution’’.
“We have listened to the community and improved the governance of TLAP (the Targeted Lead Abatement Program) by including representation from the local council and a TLAP community reference group,’’ he said.
Last month it was announced that Nyrstar and the State Government had agreed to extend the TLAP to 2034.
Construction of the facility is expected to be completed in the second half of 2024.
Mr Webb said Nyrstar employs about 800 people directly in SA plus another 300 contractors.
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