{"id":804553,"date":"2026-07-16T19:23:19","date_gmt":"2026-07-16T19:23:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/804553\/"},"modified":"2026-07-16T19:23:19","modified_gmt":"2026-07-16T19:23:19","slug":"liberty-bell-bay-very-sad-day-over-200-jobs-gone-after-closure-of-australias-only-manganese-smelter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/804553\/","title":{"rendered":"Liberty Bell Bay: \u2018Very sad day\u2019: Over 200 jobs gone after closure of Australia\u2019s only manganese smelter"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hundreds of jobs have been lost <\/a>following the immediate shuttering of Australia\u2019s only manganese\u00a0smelter.<\/p>\n

Liberty Bell Bay, located in George Town in northern Tasmania<\/a>, was ordered to close on Thursday by administrators\u00a0after it failed to attract a buyer, despite a \u201ctireless\u201d effort to secure a serious offer.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

More than 200 people were employed at the smelter.\u00a0Liberty Steel Group<\/p>\n

Administrator EY-Parthenon said it had entered into an agreement with a consortium to acquire the smelter. <\/p>\n

However, that deal fell through this week.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the absence of both a commercially viable transaction, and the funding required to continue operations, the administrators have made the difficult decision to commence the orderly closure of the business with immediate effect,\u201d EY-Parthenon said in a statement.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese difficulties were, in part, driven by the broader economic challenges associated with operating the smelter in a volatile global economy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Employees were told early on Thursday that their jobs had been made redundant, effective immediately.<\/p>\n

More than 200 people were employed at the smelter.<\/p>\n

A small workforce will remain on site to safely demobilise the site.<\/p>\n

The Mining and Energy Union (MEU) said the news of a failed takeover had come as a shock to workers.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have fought hard alongside our members over many months to keep Australia\u2019s only manganese smelter operating,\u201d a union spokesperson said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe will help members access their entitlements and keep fighting for state and federal support for our members, their families and their community.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The union has called for the government to intervene and support impacted workers.\u00a0Liberty Steel Group<\/p>\n

The union has called on the state and federal government to intervene to resume the sales process.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese workers have made an immeasurable contribution to the Tasmanian economy, and deserve full wrap-around support from state and federal government,\u201d the MEU spokesperson added.<\/p>\n

Tasmanian Premier Jeremy Rockliff and federal Industry Minister Tim Ayres said it was a sad day for communities in the region.<\/p>\n

\u201cWorkers, unions, local businesses,\u00a0EY\u00a0and all levels of\u00a0government have worked tirelessly these past few months towards\u00a0finding\u00a0a\u00a0serious buyer for the\u00a0smelter,\u201d they said in a joint statement.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis\u00a0is\u00a0deeply\u00a0difficult news for the workers of Liberty Bell Bay\u00a0and the communities of Bell Bay, George Town and northern Tasmania\u00a0who have\u00a0fought\u00a0tirelessly for a\u00a0better\u00a0outcome.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cBoth the Commonwealth and Tasmanian governments\u00a0are\u00a0now\u00a0focused on ensuring workers and their families are supported during this time, with\u00a0immediate\u00a0on-ground\u00a0support now available.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Tasmanian and federal governments had stumped up almost $10 million in wage support during the protracted administration process and said they had offered $20 million for a start-up package.<\/p>\n

The smelter had been in operation since the 1960s and was bought by Liberty Steel Group, owned by parent company GFG Alliance, in 2021.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The site was Australia\u2019s only manganese smelter.\u00a0Mining and Energy Union (MEU)<\/p>\n

It hit troubled times in May 2025 after shutting down due to price volatility and disruptions to ore supply.<\/p>\n

Workers had remained in their jobs over the past 14 months as administrators attempted to find a buyer.<\/p>\n

Liberty Bell Bay smelter was Australia\u2019s only manganese\u00a0smelter.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Hundreds of jobs have been lost following the immediate shuttering of Australia\u2019s only manganese\u00a0smelter. Liberty Bell Bay, located…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":804554,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":["post-804553","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/804553","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=804553"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/804553\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/804554"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=804553"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=804553"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=804553"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}