Aluminium production ends at Kurri smelter

　　Four decades of aluminium production officially ends today at the Kurri Kurri smelter when the last aluminium billets are cast.

　　The smelter has been gradually winding-down since Norsk Hydro announced the closure around six months ago with the loss of around 450 jobs.

　　By the end of the year the plant will go into mothballs with only a small number of workers to maintain it.

　　The smelter's acting managing Director Richard Brown says the plant may be re-started in the future if market conditions improve, but concedes that it is unlikely.

　　"The economic conditions that would allow a re-start not only to sustain and operate the plant but to cover the cost of a re-start and you're right it's not just turn it back on again, you'd have to bring all the equipment back up to an operating standard, engage a whole new workforce," he said.

　　"Really the clock is ticking because every day that goes by, the equipment deteriorates."

　　Two thousand hectares of land surrounding the smelter could become a future residential and industrial estate.

　　Mr Brown says the entire site is very large and diverse.

　　"So we've got two thousand hectares of land that stretches from Gillieston Heights right through to the Kurri Weston area so we've got rural land, some residential land, of course we've got the smelter site which is industrial, we've got pristine bushland on our site so you know the opportunities, if that were to eventuate are pretty limitless," he said.

　　Meanwhile, Norsk Hydro's human resources manager Trevor Hall says the mining industry slowdown has put a dent in the hopes of former Kurri smelter employees looking for a new job.

　　"It's fallen a bit flat although there were some people who got in early soon after we had the jobs market, but obviously with the fall in coal prices, things have been a bit of a squeeze and that's made it more difficult for people in this area but the remaining people are out there still looking for work," he said.