GLENCORE’S Mike Westerman warned on Monday that the company may need to consider the future of its North Queensland copper processing assets if energy prices increase.
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Base electricity prices have doubled over three years, Mr Westerman said.
Mr Westerman said that 35 per cent of the refinery’s cost was gas and electricity.
The chief operating officer said this while giving a tour of Glencore’s copper refinery in Townsville to Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and Federal Resources Minister Matt Canavan.
Mr Westerman said Glencore’s operations contributed more than $1.1 billion to Queensland’s economy. The refinery employs 200 people and produces 300,000 tonnes of copper cathode each year.
“We support the Government’s measures to decrease current volatility in the energy market and provide greater certainty for large industrial users of energy in Australia,” Mr Westerman said.
“We recognise this type of temporary bridging policy might be required, given the critical nature of the issue.”
He said that reliable low cost baseload energy for households and industry should be the focus of the country’s energy policy and should consider low emission but high efficient coal technologies.
