Deal made to remove Ouvea mix

New Zealand Aluminium Smelters will contribute $1.75 million towards the cost of removing Ouvea Premix from buildings in Southland.

A $4m deal between affected parties has been agreed to, paving the way for the substance to be shipped to an overseas buyer when the final purchase agreement is signed.

NZAS chief executive and site general manager Stewart Hamilton said the company was pleased the agreement was progressing as planned.

As well as the NZAS contribution, the Ministry for the Environment will contribute $1.25m, Invercargill City Council will pay $31,061 in its capacity as a landlord and $214,000 as its local authority share, Gore District Council will pay $54,800 and Environment Southland will contribute $250,000.

Gore District Council chief executive Steve Parry is overseas but has previously said he hoped the substance could move from Mataura ‘‘soon’’, but it would take several years before Southland was rid of it.

He has been at the forefront of negotiations between landlords, councils, NZAS and the Government.

‘‘It has been one of the biggest projects I have worked on and it has taken about 80 per cent of my time making sure all parties were on the same page.

‘‘I for one will be very, very pleased when the trucks start rolling into Mataura to take it all away, as I’m sure everyone else will be too.’’

Environment Southland chairman Nicol Horrell said in April that, while the council had no statutory obligations in regard to the storage of the materials, councillors recognised they had a role in the solution.

‘‘This is an issue the community feels strongly about. There is a lot of concern and we are prepared to play our part in the resolution.’’

The $250,000 it will contribute will be funded from reserves.

Landlords will contribute $318,939 but the individual amounts they will pay have been kept confidential to protect privacy.

Parry said the premix being stored in the former paper mill building at Mataura would be moved first as it presented the biggest risk because it was next to the Mataura River.

NZAS said it entered into a contract with Taha Asia Pacific for Taha to build and operate a dross processing facility at NZAS.

The output of the dross processing by Taha was a product, Ouvea Premix, which was owned by and was the legal responsibility of Taha.

It said Ouvea Premix had substantially different chemical characteristics from dross and had different requirements under the Hazardous Substances and New Organisms Act.

Since Taha went into liquidation, all manufacturing of Ouvea Premix ceased.

Ouvea Premix was left in the former paper mill at Mataura and at sites at Awarua, near Invercargill, after Taha Asia Pacific went into liquidation in August 2016.

Its contract with NZAS to process Ouvea Premix expired and was not renewed.

Liquidators EY formally disclaimed the oxide residue in December, meaning the Ouvea disposal was no longer the liquidated firm’s responsibility – rather it was up to ‘‘interested parties, including central and local government and the landlords of the storage sites’’.

About 10,000 tonnes of premix is understood to be stored in the mill buildings next to the Mataura River.

The premix is a class six hazardous substance used to produce phosphate fertiliser.

If saturated with water, it can produce ammonia gas, which can burn the nose and throat if inhaled.