{"id":521680,"date":"2026-03-06T03:53:16","date_gmt":"2026-03-06T03:53:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/521680\/"},"modified":"2026-03-06T03:53:16","modified_gmt":"2026-03-06T03:53:16","slug":"liberty-bell-bay-faces-shutdown-after-failure-to-lodge-annual-financial-reports-for-five-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/521680\/","title":{"rendered":"Liberty Bell Bay faces shutdown after failure to lodge annual financial reports for five years"},"content":{"rendered":"

The corporate regulator has moved to wind up the Liberty Bell Bay manganese smelter in northern Tasmania, citing the company’s repeated failure to lodge financial statements.<\/p>\n

The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) said in a statement this morning that Liberty Bell Bay, which is owned by British businessman Sanjeev Gupta’s GFG Alliance, had failed to lodge annual reports for the past five years.<\/p>\n

The regulator applied in the NSW Supreme Court yesterday to wind up the business.\u00a0<\/p>\n

GFG Alliance is in financial turmoil and last August the Tasmanian government loaned the company $20 million to allow Liberty Bell Bay to buy a shipment of manganese ore so the smelter could restart processing.<\/p>\n

\"Large<\/p>\n

The smelter entered a period of limited operations in May last year. (ABC News: Owain Stia-James)<\/p>\n

However, the smelter did not resume operations and at the end of January the state government appointed receivers and managers to protect the 23,000-tonne ore stockpile<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Minister for Business, Industry and Resources Felix Ellis said at the time the move had been made following ongoing defaults under the state’s loan agreement.<\/p>\n

“Unfortunately, GFG has not delivered on its promises to Tasmanians and to its workers to restart operations, and the loan [has] not been repaid,” he said.<\/p>\n

\"Felix<\/p>\n

Felix Ellis said at the time the government must “act responsibly to protect public funds”. (ABC News)<\/p>\n

This morning Mr Ellis said news of the Liberty Bell Bay wind-up would be “challenging for the workers, their families, and the wider community”.<\/p>\n

“To the workers and their families: we are in your corner.”<\/p>\n

“We will continue to work closely with the receivers, workforce and the community throughout this process.”Uncertain future for GFG Alliance workers<\/a><\/p>\n

With one mine still temporarily shut down and another smelter about to pause its operations, GFG Alliance workers across Australia are being left in limbo as Sanjeev Gupta’s business woes continue.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In its statement this morning, the ASIC said last June it had obtained court orders forcing Liberty Bell Bay to lodge annual reports for the financial years ending in 2021-24, but the company had failed to comply.<\/p>\n

ASIC alleges Liberty Bell Bay has also failed to lodge reports for the financial year ending in 2025.<\/p>\n

Liberty Bell Bay is Australia’s only manganese alloy smelter and has been in limited operations since May, which has placed uncertainty over the future of about 250 jobs.<\/p>\n

\"Workers<\/p>\n

Liberty Bell Bay is a major industrial employer that accounts for about 7 per cent of the state’s energy usage. (ABC News: Kate Nickels)<\/p>\n

International company may lease smelter to keep it going<\/p>\n

GFG has signed a memorandum of understanding with Steel International Trading Company (SITC), an exports company based in Georgia, to operate the smelter on a lease arrangement for up to five years.<\/p>\n

As well as Liberty Bell Bay, GFG Alliance’s operations in Australia include the Whyalla steelworks in South Australia and Tahmoor Coal in NSW \u2014 both of which are under administration \u2014 and steel recycling and manufacturing business InfraBuild.<\/p>\n

Ray Mostogl, CEO for the Tasmanian Minerals, Manufacturing and Energy Council, said ASIC’s action was a legacy of Mr Gupta’s financial troubles.<\/p>\n

Does Liberty Bell Bay have a future?<\/a><\/p>\n

The manganese smelter in Tasmania has ore sitting untouched as Sanjeev Gupta turns to a Georgian company for a bailout, but an ASIC investigation looms.<\/p>\n

“There’s plenty of evidence in South Australia to show how bad that has turned out. That is probably tarnishing the willingness to jump in here,” he said.<\/p>\n

“GFG’s bridges have been burned with the federal government and Liberty Bell Bay probably stands a very low chance of getting federal support.”<\/p>\n

He said Liberty Bell Bay’s best hope for survival lay in its MOU with SITC, which was optimistic it could resume operations at the smelter.<\/p>\n

\"Ray<\/p>\n

Ray Mostogl says it is unlikely Sanjeev Gupta will receive assistance from the federal government. (Supplied)<\/p>\n

Federal Industry Minister Tim Ayres today supported the wind-up action taken by ASIC.<\/p>\n

“There are consequences for businesses that don’t comply with Australian law \u2014 this is the independent regulator working as it should.<\/p>\n

“I know this is more uncertainty for workers and the community \u2014 GFG must continue to front up and honour all obligations including wages and entitlements. We won’t accept anything less.”<\/p>\n

GFG Alliance has been contacted for comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The corporate regulator has moved to wind up the Liberty Bell Bay manganese smelter in northern Tasmania, citing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":521681,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[64,63,99,5480,260185,125332,31113,8207,21576,116535,55019,121062,2801],"class_list":["post-521680","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-business","tag-financial","tag-four-years","tag-liberty-bell-bay","tag-manganese","tag-report","tag-reporting","tag-shut-down","tag-shutdown","tag-smelter","tag-tasmania"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/521680","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=521680"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/521680\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/521681"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=521680"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=521680"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=521680"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}