All Topics  
Tiwai Point

 
Tiwai Point

 
   Email Print
   Bookmark   Link
 

 

Tiwai Point
 
 
  Topics Tiwai Point Topic Home

Tiwai Point lies at the entrance to Bluff
Bluff, New Zealand

Bluff is a town and seaport in the Southland, New Zealand region, on the southern coast of the South Island of New Zealand. It is the southern-most town in New Zealand and, despite Slope Point being further to the south, is colloquially used to refer to the southern extremity of the country ....
 Harbour on the southern coast of the South Island
South Island

The South Island is the larger of the two major Islands of New Zealand of New Zealand, the other being the more populous North Island. The Maori name for the South Island, Te Wai Pounamu, meaning "The Water/s of Greenstone" , possibly evolved from Te Wahi Pounamu which means "The Place Of Greenstone"....
 of New Zealand
New Zealand

New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses , and numerous Islands of New Zealand, most notably Stewart Island/Rakiura and the Chatham Islands....
.






Discussion
Ask a question about 'Tiwai Point'
Start a new discussion about 'Tiwai Point'
Answer questions from other users
Full Discussion Forum



Encyclopedia


Tiwai Point Aluminium Smelter
Nz Tiwai P
Tiwai Point lies at the entrance to Bluff
Bluff, New Zealand

Bluff is a town and seaport in the Southland, New Zealand region, on the southern coast of the South Island of New Zealand. It is the southern-most town in New Zealand and, despite Slope Point being further to the south, is colloquially used to refer to the southern extremity of the country ....
 Harbour on the southern coast of the South Island
South Island

The South Island is the larger of the two major Islands of New Zealand of New Zealand, the other being the more populous North Island. The Maori name for the South Island, Te Wai Pounamu, meaning "The Water/s of Greenstone" , possibly evolved from Te Wahi Pounamu which means "The Place Of Greenstone"....
 of New Zealand
New Zealand

New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses , and numerous Islands of New Zealand, most notably Stewart Island/Rakiura and the Chatham Islands....
. A spit which extends from the western end of the Awarua Plain
Awarua Plain

The Awarua Plain is a large area of wetland to the east of Bluff, New Zealand. Covering an area of around 600 km?, the plain stretches for 35 kilometres along the coast of Foveaux Strait....
, it lies between Awarua Bay to the north and Foveaux Strait
Foveaux Strait

Foveaux Strait is the strait between the South Island, New Zealand on the north side, with the three large bays Te Waewae Bay, Oreti Beach and Toetoes Bay, and the Solander Islands, Stewart Island/Rakiura and Ruapuke Island on the south....
 to the south. It is famous for the Tiwai Point Aluminium Smelter, one of the largest industrial facilities in New Zealand.

Aluminium smelting

Process

Tiwai Point is the location of an aluminium smelter
Aluminium smelting

Aluminium smelting is the process of extracting aluminium from its oxide alumina, generally by the Hall-H?roult process. Alumina is extracted from the ore Bauxite by means of the Bayer process at an alumina refinery....
 which was opened in 1971. It is one of the 20 largest aluminium smelters of the world and currently provides NZ$3.65 billion worth of economic benefit to the New Zealand economy. It produces the world's highest purity primary (i.e. directly refined made from alumina ore) aluminium. The ore is mostly imported from Australia, while the finished product mostly goes to Japan.

Facility

The smelter currently consists of 3 lines of P69 technology cells, with 208 cells each (i.e. 624 total), and one line of 48 CD200 technology cells. Approximately 800 full time personnel are employed, and up to ~ 130 additional contractors. Current metal production is ~ 330 kilotonnes per annum. The third P69 Line was buit in the early 1980s as part of the Muldoon government Think Big
Think Big

The New Zealand Prime Minister of New Zealand Robert Muldoon and his New Zealand National Party government in the early 1980s sponsored Think Big as an economic interventionism state economic strategy....
 project.

Electricity

The smelter uses ~610MW of electricity which is mostly supplied by the hydroelectric Manapouri Power Station
Manapouri Power Station

Manapouri Power Station is an Underground power station owned and operated by Meridian Energy Limited, and is the largest hydroelectric power station in New Zealand....
. The perceived reliability of power from Manapouri played a major role in the choice of building the aluminium smelter in Southland, with both the power plant and the smelter having been constructed as a joint project. The facility is the largest electricity consumer in New Zealand, and uses approximately 15% of the total power countrywide.

The process also emits large amounts of greenhouse gas
Greenhouse gas

Greenhouse gases are gases in an atmosphere that Absorption and Emission radiation within the Infrared#Different regions in the infrared range....
es, though the smelter is hailed as being amongst the Top 5% of all aluminium smelters worldwide in terms of limiting its emissions. Ownership

The smelter is currently owned by Rio Tinto Aluminium (RTA) (79.36%) and the Sumitomo Chemical Company
Sumitomo Group

is one of the largest keiretsus, founded by Masatomo Sumitomo....
 (20.64%). Paul Hemburrow is the current General Manager Operations (as of 2007).