It is reported that owners of Whyalla's pig iron plant are set to begin hiring staff as momentum on resurrecting the South Australian facility increases. It has been more than four years since the plant was mothballed Ausmelt wants to reopen it to smelt zinc oxide from Zinifex's Tasmanian operations.

Mr David Sherrington zinc manager of Ausmelt Whyalla said that the jobs would soon be advertised for the plant, which he hopes will be operating by the end of the year. He said that all development requirements have been met, including Environment Protection Authority concerns about zinc dust.

Mr David added that "Dust emissions should not be a problem we have been very proactive in terms of managing the containment of dust and preventing any dust emissions and in terms of the modifications that we've put into the facility, a large part of the capital cost relates to environmental controls of which dust containment is one of them"