Narrative thread · 1 event
The Australian government has put support worth about $1.8bn behind a Rio Tinto aluminium smelter, Bloomberg reports, with the public money tied to keeping domestic aluminium capacity running.
Australia's aluminium smelting depends on a handful of energy-intensive plants, among them operations run by Rio Tinto. Whether taxpayers should underwrite them to preserve domestic capacity is the question at the centre of this topic, which pits the federal government's industrial policy against the cost of keeping the smelters open.
Bloomberg reports that the Australian government is putting support worth about $1.8bn behind a Rio Tinto aluminium smelter. The package ties public money to keeping domestic aluminium capacity running.