ARMANDO TORRES, MANAGING DIRECTOR, RIO TINTO PACIFIC OPERATIONS: Good morning, everyone, Thank you all for joining us today I would like to start by sincerely thanking our partners in Australia and Queensland globally, and welcoming Minister Tim Ayres and Minister Dale Last, to Boyne Smelters here this morning.

Also, I would like to say a big thank you to Shauna, really, for hosting us here today together. We have worked very hard for many years. We deeply appreciate our collaboration with the Federal and State government in their support in the solution for the Boyne Smelter. Today, we are very excited to tell everyone here that Boyne Smelter has a strong long-term future, at least until 2040. 

Our landmark partnership will support thousands of jobs in the region and across Queensland and preserve the Queensland onshore manufacturing through a fully integrated aluminum supply chain. Bauxite in Cape York, from the alumina here in Gladstone, and of course, for this asset producing aluminum. So, it's a great outcome.

I'm also proud, really, to share that your contribution will be support our investment here, and it's going to underpin $7.5 billion of renewable generation development here in the region.

Together, we are shaping an internationally competitive future of our Boyne Smelter and it's an honour here today to celebrate one of the most significant decarbonisation and industrial investment and commitments in Australia. 

So, I will hand it over to you. Thank you.

TIM AYRES, MINISTER FOR INDUISTRY AND INNOVATION, MINISTER FOR SCIENCE: Well, I just want to say firstly, thank you to Armando and Shona and the team from Rio Tinto, and welcome my friend Dale Last here today. This is a very significant decision from the Commonwealth Government, Queensland Government and Rio Tinto to invest in the long-term future of this facility. This is a Future Made in Australia commitment from the Albanese government that delivers aluminum production here through until 2040.

That means workers can plan with confidence about their future. That means that Rio Tinto can invest with confidence and firms in the supply chain, engineering firms all through Central Queensland, can invest with confidence in capability and apprenticeships and new plant and equipment that guarantees a proud industrial future for this important part of Queensland and Australia's economy.

It's a $1 billion commitment from the Commonwealth Government, a $1 billion commitment from the government of Queensland that that secures investment here, and as Armando has indicated, delivering and unlocking a $7.5 billion investment in new electricity generation right here in regional Queensland. 

This is a good deal for everybody in Australia. It means we protect and defend and extend industrial capability in this end-to-end aluminum supply chain. From bauxite in Cape York through to alumina and aluminum production here finding its way all the way through to construction sites and retail outlets in our big cities. This is a good decision for Australian economic resilience at a time in our history when we cannot take our future for granted.

We cannot be complacent, and this investment is about building our industrial capability and giving us a platform to extend that into the future. 

What it means here in central Queensland is thousands of jobs. Thousands of jobs now, and thousands of apprenticeship opportunities and production worker opportunities, traineeships, cadetships and engineering roles for people here at Rio Tinto. I'm just so proud of the work that all our teams did to secure this. 

I do want to say thank you to the Government of Queensland and Rio Tinto for how we've worked in what have been challenging discussions that have all been focused on the right outcome, securing this facility and all the facilities and the region that rely upon it, and securing a better deal for Queensland and for Australia.

More generation capability here in Queensland secures this facility, but it means lower costs, lower energy costs for Queensland households and Queensland businesses. That is a good thing. What we want to see is addition to electricity capability so we can deliver more industrial jobs and secure our future in an era where we are absolutely focused on delivering energy security.

The final thing that I wanted to say really to the group of staff that are assembled here today, I am very conscious that while we've been doing the work of negotiating and working through these issues with our partners in Rio Tinto and Queensland, you have been turning up here every single day of the week, turning up early, leaving late, working really hard.

And I want to say thank you to you for the work that you do, securing this facility, working with colleagues, making not the not the big, billion dollar decisions like the ones that we've made today, but as I was saying to Shona, every incremental little decision that you make to make this facility work stronger, more competitively, more productively, supports Australian manufacturing and Australian industry and a Future Made in Australia. We don't get to have these victories without everybody being focused on working together and pulling together in the national interest. So, I just wanted to say thanks. Happy to answer a few questions after, but I’ll hand it over to Dale Last.

DALE LAST: Thank you, Tim, great to be here. Great day for the Boyne Smelter. Great day for Gladstone. Even better day for Queensland. This decision, this announcement here today, $1 billion from the Commonwealth Government, $1 billion to Queensland Government, underwritten by $7.5 billion dollars from Rio Tinto, one of the biggest investment decisions this country has ever seen. And we're proud to be a part of this, because the Crisafulli Government has said from day one that Queensland is open for business, and that's exactly what we're doing here today. Reaffirming that message that when it comes to manufacturing, we want to build that sovereign capacity. We want to start controlling this from start to finish, that whole value chain.

I’ve stood at the bauxite mine in Weipa. I've been up there with Shana and stood on the red pebbles and mine refined, smelt that whole value chain. It doesn't get any better than that and to come here and to see all this aluminum behind me, such a versatile metal, such an important metal in our economy and of course, those export dollars that it generates for Queensland and for Australia. But I want to talk about the workers, all you people here today, 1000 jobs here, direct jobs, 2000 indirect jobs, massive employer in this area, in this heartland of industrial city of Gladstone. This decision today, gives that certainty that you're all looking for right out to 2040 to know that you have a secure job, that this business is going to grow, and that's what we want to see. We want to see that happen. 

I'm pretty passionate about growing our resources sector and our manufacturing capability in Queensland, and Tim and I are making a habit of this now. We saved the Copper smelter at Mount Isa. We're here today in Gladstone with the with the smelter here. What a great news story this is, and great relationship between the Commonwealth Government and the Queensland Government. We're going to continue to do that because we want to grow this and we want to control our own destiny in this state. Thanks everyone. Thank you. 

AYRES: Happy to take questions. 

JOURNALIST: Minister, can you give a bit more detail about how this deal will actually work? How will the funds be dispersed? Will it be direct subsidies, production, tax credits?

AYRES: So the arrangement here, from the Commonwealth's perspective, is our $1 billion dollar commitment will be dispersed over the course of the 10 years of the agreement through until 2040 they will be production link credits for renewable energy generated aluminum. 

That will support the investment that Rio Tinto makes in underwriting power purchasing agreements right through Queensland. So, it's an investment from the Commonwealth, an investment from Queensland production link credits, payment on delivery so related to the production results here, and it will underwrite a $7.5 billion commitment from Rio Tinto that will deliver new generation. So, lower power costs more electricity, good for Queensland and good for Australia.

JOURNALIST: And that new generation is that entirely renewable, or we see a mix of gas and coal involved in it?

AYRES: I think it's very unlikely that that Australian investors will be investing in new coal fired capacity. It’s too expensive. This will underwrite new wind and solar and new transmission that will deliver low-cost clean electricity to make sure that this facility is competitive into the future. 

JOURNALIST: What about gas? 

AYRES: Well, gas is a part of our overall story here. Gas is important for Australian energy security. It's really important for backing in our grid. Rio will invest in power purchasing agreements, but the grid will be backed up with gas for electricity peaking as part of our stabilising arrangements that will include hydro, gas, battery storage, low-cost solar, low-cost wind, all together. An Australian energy security package that we need to keep building out well beyond 2030 and 2040. We're going to be re- industrialising our economy. That means more electricity. We're going to be driving investment in the digital technology, the future, data centres, digital infrastructure that requires more electricity. This is a story here from the Federal Government about driving investment into our energy system. 

JOURNALIST: Sorry, has Rio made a firm commitment to 2040 like, that's a commitment that made this facility? 

AYRES: Yeah, I'll let Armando speak to that. 

TORRES: Yeah, the solution of this smelter, like, is very good. So, this smelter is important for the supply chain and finding an energy solution that moves us to a transition for renewables is not simple. So, for us to find that solution that we're announcing here today was a tremendous work from Queensland, from Federal [Government], from our teams, really to find a solution that that's going to be quite a transformational solution for the smelter to be using renewable energy.

So, with that really, under this complex and difficult solution – of course, we have a strong commitment for several projects that will be in development, and our contracts will be with at least 20 to 25 years. So, there's a solution, strong commitment from Rio Tinto, strong commitment from the state of Queensland, strong commitment from Commonwealth. 

JOURNALIST: So, at least 2040, is that what you’re saying? 

TORRES: Yeah, at least 2040. So bring us, as Minister Tim Ayres said, so now bring options, we can explore investing more, investing more technologies, more commitment in developing local businesses. So, it brings strength to the local community and to state and to Australia. I'd say, really, this deal is very good for our workforce. It is very good for our local communities, not only here, but in Cape York as well. It's very good to the state of Queensland, and it's very good to Australia. 

JOURNALIST: Why was Gladstones Boyne Smelter selected for this investment? 

AYRES:  Well, this is a core part of Australia's industrial capacity here in central Queensland. This is a facility that directly employs 1000 people, but more broadly in the economy here touches well, it employs 3000 people, but it touches the lives of everybody in central Queensland, and all of those people engaged in the resources industry, in far north Queensland. 

This is an important industrial asset for Australia. The Albanese Government's Future Made in Australia package is the largest pro-manufacturing package in Australian history and we have developed that package because the times demand strong governments investing in Australian manufacturing and Australian industrial capability and when we find partners like the Queensland Government who are prepared to work with us, sharing the cost, sharing the benefit, driving new investment here in industry, but also new investment in addition to the electricity capacity of the state. Then we get very good outcomes in blue collar jobs and regional economies. 

Dale and I worked hard with the team from Glencore over the future of the Mount Isa facility. Not just that facility, which employs 600 or so workers in Mount Isa, but it is the centre of a network that secures about 17,000 jobs from Mount Isa through Townsville. This facility, too, is at the centre of an industrial ecosystem that supports thousands of jobs, hundreds of businesses and builds our industrial capability overall as Australia makes Australia stronger and more resilient. 

It is a slam dunk. The economic case for this investment is, it's good for productivity. It's good for economic resilience. It invests in electricity generation, it drives costs down, lifts productivity up, and makes Australia stronger and I look forward to working with colleagues here in Queensland and around the country as we secure Australia's industrial future and back in that Future Made in Australia, vision for blue collar jobs.

Anything else for us? If not, I'd better scarper back to Canberra. Thanks very much. Everybody. Really appreciate your work and conscious that you'll be here tomorrow and the day after that, and the day after that, I really look forward to coming up and spending a bit more time at BSL and in Gladstone, thank you very much. Thanks, Dale!