PORTLAND Aluminium has announced it will increase its capacity by 35,000 tonnes a year, in a further boost to the smelter’s long-term prospects.

The decision will also be a massive boost for the local jobs market, with the smelter seeking 30 new employees for its own staff, and another 50 likely to be filled by contractors during construction, part of an ongoing campaign to recruit workers as many long-serving staff retire.

Already in the past few months the smelter has hired 20 staff to fill gaps caused by retirements, and plans – on top of the staff needed for the new pots – to recruit a handful of operators each month over the next four years at least.

It is looking at some innovative ways to attract people to work there – with work ethic prioritised over skills for the operator roles.

Alcoa, the managing partner in the joint venture that runs the smelter, said restarting the pots – which will add 35,000 tonnes a year to its capacity – and which will see the smelter operate at 95 per cent of its 358,000 tonnes a year limit – would cost US$28 million (A$38 million).

“Restarting the idle capacity improves the smelter’s cost structure, competitiveness and longer-term sustainability,” said Alcoa Australia president Michael Gollschewski.

“Portland Aluminium has long enjoyed the support of the local community and with this project we are pleased to be able to create further positive social impact through additional employment and local expenditure.”

The restart is possible thanks to a new four-year power deal with AGL that supplements the five-year agreements with AGL, Alinta Energy and Origin announced in March, and which began in August – those agreements underpinning the smelter’s future.

It involves 72MW of supply and will begin in July 2022.

But smelter plant manager Ron Jorgensen said work was well underway already.

“We’ve started ordering the long lead-time materials so that we can get on with it,” he told the Observer.

“We’re not the only people in the world looking (for materials) and we need to get on the front foot to source them.”

The decision to increase the number of pots – the capacity has been idle since 2009 – meant about 50 contractors would be working over the next several months to “get the plant back into position where we can restart it”.

“This whole restart will also create a lot of work for our local contractors, engineering companies and such like will be able to pick up packages of work,” he said.

“It’s not just pots, but fume systems and other maintenance taking place, we need to make sure process flow can keep up with pot needs.”

Mr Jorgensen said the decision to increase capacity was a huge vote of confidence in the smelter’s future – and he thanked Alcoa, the joint venture partners (Alumina, Marubeni and Citic) and the others who put the deal together.

“We’ve got a power deal for five years, which is great, and we’re working beyond that,” he said.

“We’re not thinking we’re only here to (2026), we’re on that journey where we want the same thing for future generations as today.

“There’s a whole bunch of new jobs that are going to come up.”  

The smelter has just celebrated 35 years in existence and has been marked by low staff turnover in the past.

But since the power deal several have taken the opportunity to retire – and many more were expected to.

Human resources manager Peter Duncan told the Observer that where in the past staff had waited until 65 before retiring, that age was now coming down to 62 or 63.

“Obviously in the past they had concerns about the future of the smelter and were holding off, so there wasn’t a lot of opportunities (for newcomers),” he said.

“That’s changed now.

“What we’re keen to do is not hire more of the same, but we’re focused on making Portland Aluminium a workplace that attracts everyone in the local area, not just those with certain skills.

“The workforce is really dominated by average-age 50s men (largely with a trades background) and what we want to see is that it is an option for everybody.”

A good example was the operator positions, for which no training was required – the smelter had employed about 20 staff in the past three months, including eight in November.

“We’re not after skills, we’re after will,” Mr Jorgensen said.

“If you’ve got the will, we’ll teach you the skills. Everything you do in (operator roles) we’re going to teach you. We’re really after work ethic, that’s much more important than how many tickets you’ve got.

“We really are looking for the next generation.

“It’s a difficult period for us, we’re losing a lot of experience but it’s also exciting times and opens the door for a new chapter for the smelter.

“There are lots of fantastic people in the community looking for security, good work and good jobs.

“There’s some terrific jobs here (everything from community relations to nurses to engineers to potline operators).”

The smelter’s presence in the community meant it registered with younger people, and the challenge was to get them to work there.

“The key is to go into schools, and we’ve talked about even employees recommending people,” said community relations manager Anna Impey.

“We need to communicate to people (so) that we’re not afterthoughts.”

The coronavirus pandemic had made that harder, as regular events such as smelter tours had been canned and the popular Future Leaders of Industry program for secondary school students had been affected.

Ms Impey said the smelter was even looking at gap year students – many of whom were in uncertain times due to the pandemic – to see if they could be offered roles.

“For the right candidates we can be flexible too, with part-time and fixed work contracts,” she said.

Mr Jorgensen said that was an untapped market.

“A lot of people in the last 18 months have been somewhat displaced,” he said.

“They haven’t gone to university and are really looking for something. We might be able to help bridging some of that gap.

“We’ve also got people with generations of family come through the smelter. We’ve got some great people here and we’d love to continue that.”

AGL chief operating officer Markus Brokhof said the company was pleased to support the smelter with the additional supply which was a “mutually beneficial commercial outcome”.

“We welcome Alcoa’s decision to restart these pots which will allow AGL to continue playing a role in supporting the smelter’s operations,” Mr Brokhof said.

“The Portland smelter is one of AGL’s largest wholesale customers in Victoria and provides critical stability to the state’s energy network.

“This restart will continue to support the communities in which the Portland smelter operates, as well as providing essential jobs and security to Victoria’s electricity supply.”

● Trini Diaz and Brodie Jenkins might have had vastly different career paths, but they are among the new employees that now call the smelter home.

Ms Diaz works in the ingot mill, having joined five months ago.

Prior to that she had 13 years as a paint inspector at Keppel Prince following a stint at Vestas.

Ms Diaz said job security was a key to her changing careers.

“The power deal was on the cusp of being accepted and this offered more security at that stage,” she said.

“And it was a change, I was probably getting a bit bored and wanted to move on.”

Mr Jenkins joined the smelter from the Portland Leisure and Aquatic Centre where he had worked for about four years after moving here from Melbourne.

A qualified exercise sports scientist he was looking for a change.

“I always had an interest in what Portland Aluminium was and when the opportunity popped up I thought it was a good opportunity to come out here for personal growth and career development.”

Mr Jenkins is a pot room operator – exactly the role the smelter will be looking to fill and proof no prior trade experience is necessary – and joined about the same time Prime Minister Scott Morrison visited in March, the day the power deal was announced.

“It was a huge relief, but this definitely has more (job) security, particularly in COVID times,” he said.