Clive Palmer’s beleaguered Queensland nickel refinery must keep on enough staff to meet environmental safety standards or risk facing criminal prosecution, the state government says.
Palmer, who last week failed to follow through on promises of new contracts for 550 staff, has said it could take up to eight weeks for a new plant operator to rehire while it lines up government approvals and ore shipments.
On Monday the Queensland environment minister, Steven Miles, warned Queensland Nickel Sales (QNS), which took over running of the plant from Queensland Nickel, another of Palmer’s businesses, on Friday, would need enough qualified staff to satisfy an environmental protection order that followed the licence transfer to run the plant.
“Recent media reports suggest QNS has told workers they will not be re-employed for some weeks – but I strongly urge the company to ensure sufficient qualified staff are retained on site,” Miles said.
“There are serious consequences, including the possibility of criminal charges being laid, for failing to comply with these directives.”
The protection order issued by the state environment department requires QNS to take “all necessary actions” to prevent environmental harm, including having suitably qualified staff and security on hand to do this.
QNS must also advise the department if it plans to “cease activities” at the site, but the protection order remains even if the environmental licence lapses.
Guardian Australia reported on Saturday that state taxpayers faced a clean-up bill of almost $100m if Queensland Nickel shut down and no buyer was found.
The main environmental risks come from the refinery’s tailings dam, whose overflow and alleged leaking of toxic waste into Great Barrier Reef waters in 2014 has already led to Queensland Nickel facing criminal charges.
A spokesman for the environment department told Guardian Australia that QNS’s new licence required it to “rehabilitate all disturbed areas to a condition that is safe, non-polluting, stable and able to sustain an appropriate land use” should the plant shut.
“QNS would also be responsible for post-closure care to ensure the site does not release any contaminants to the environment which could result in environmental harm or nuisance.
“It is unrealistic to expect the site can be returned to a pre-disturbed state, and the [environmental authority] does not require this.”
The department does not hold a bond for cleaning up the Townsville site as its guidelines were only recently changed to allow it to require financial assurance from refineries. It oculd previously only require bonds from mines.
The plant’s sacked workers, including another 237 made redundant in January, and trade creditors were called to a meeting in Townsville on Monday to discuss a community buyback for the refinery.
The buyback offer for the plant – seen as a key economic contributor to the vulnerable north Queensland economy – is being floated by investment consulting firm Sister City Partners.
Its chairman, Warwick Powell, told the Australian newspaper it was “in a position to seriously engage with Mr Palmer and the outcome is absolutely vital to the future of the refinery and for the region”.
Administrators of the plant’s collapsed former operator, Queensland Nickel Pty Ltd, have said almost 800 staff are owed about $60m, with unsecured creditors in total owed about $100m.
But neither Queensland Nickel Pty Ltd nor QNS – which Palmer thrust in as the new operator, to the surprise of administrators, in a bid to gain a possible $23m loan – own the refinery itself.
They are both subsidiaries of Palmer-owned parent companies QNI Metals and QNI Resources, which own a facility which Palmer has said represents “net assets of over $1.9 bn”.
