The state and federal governments will jointly loan up to $3 million to Liberty Bell Bay, securing wages for workers at the George Town smelter while a sale is fast-tracked.
The 50-50 package was announced on Wednesday by Premier Jeremy Rockliff, two days before workers’ wages were due to run out under voluntary administration.
“Today, we’re stepping in to protect the workers at Liberty Bell Bay,” Rockliff said.
“The agreement that we have struck with Canberra will see the workforce supported while the sale process is accelerated.”
Liberty Bell Bay is Australia’s only commercial ferroalloy smelter and one of northern Tasmania’s largest employers, with around 300 direct jobs and about 850 flow-on jobs across the region.
Owner GFG Alliance was placed into voluntary administration on March 23, with Ernst and Young appointed administrator.
Federal Industry Minister Tim Ayres said the intervention would prevent stand-downs expected within 36 to 48 hours.
He placed the blame squarely on GFG when pressed on whether the governments owed workers an apology for the delay in support.
“The person who owes them an apology is the owner of the facility or the previous owner of the facility,” Ayres said.
Ayres said he had never met with owner Sanjeev Gupta and indicated GFG was not among the “responsible owners” the federal government was willing to work with.
“We are stepping in here to make sure that this process doesn’t fall over at the last moment because pay can’t be made. It’s the right thing to do,” he said.
“We’ll be working closely with the administrator over the coming weeks and we’re doing everything that we can to keep the pressure on the process so that we get to a sale to a credible owner as quickly as possible.”
The new loan follows a troubled $20 million state loan provided in August 2025 to restart operations.
That restart never happened and the loan expired unpaid on January 18.
The state later appointed receivers to protect a manganese ore stockpile bought with taxpayer funds.
Rockliff said the stockpile remained available to any new owner.
Unions last week described earlier assurances as a ‘stay of execution’, with wages only guaranteed to April 24.
The smelter has been in limited operations since May 2025 after running short of manganese ore, a disruption linked to cyclone damage at South32’s GEMCO mine and wider problems across GFG’s Australian assets.
Administrators are now expected to run an accelerated sale.
Neither minister committed to extending support beyond three weeks, despite suggestions the sale could take up to six.
Tasmanian Labor leader Josh Willie welcomed the package but said more work remained.
“While today’s announcement is certainly not job done, we look forward to the Liberty Bell Bay workers’ jobs being secured through the sale of the smelter to a new owner,” he said.
“And we will keep fighting for the workers until their jobs are locked in.”
