Albemarle down to skeleton staff as Kemerton lithium hydroxide refinery shifts to care and maintenance

US chemicals giant Albemarle says it has “largely completed” sacking roughly 250 WA workers after making the call to idle the Kemerton lithium hydroxide refinery in February. About 375 people had been working across Albemarle’s WA lithium processing operations until the company threw in the towel claiming Australia’s energy costs were too high, and lithium prices not high enough, to continue operating. “The workforce changes announced in February have largely been completed,” an Albemarle spokesman told The West Australian. “Operations at Kemerton have been idled, and the team has begun working through the phases to place the plant into care and maintenance.” Albemarle has not confirmed how many staff are now left on the payroll, but some 250 jobs predominantly linked to the running of Kemerton’s last lithium processing train were set to be axed when the closure was first announced. The West Australian understands Albemarle’s Australian employees were notified of the redundancies or what options they had for redeployment during a ‘consultation period’ in February. According to an Albemarle memo to employees at the time, it was expected most workers would be shown the door during the first ‘wave’ ending at the end of that month. Those with less than five years of continuous service were entitled to eight week’s pay, according to material provided to employees. The company would not disclose whether there had since been further discussions with the Government about further support — outside of a looming tax break Kemerton would have qualified for — to keep the operation open. “We do not comment on conversations with governments.” A team of skeleton staff will run the refinery once it’s fully transitioned to care and maintenance, which is believed to be in July or August. That lithium hydroxide prices had got to about $US18,000 a tonne in January from the $US10,000 mark just months before, raised questions as to why Kemerton couldn’t start to get a handle on costs. Albemarle chief executive Kent Masters said Western buyers would need to start paying a premium for lithium hydroxide in order for it even consider a restart and compete with China. Albemarle didn’t rule out being open to a sale when asked by The West Australian at the end of February. “The only decision we’ve made is at this stage is to idle operations at Kemerton. Our intent is to keep Kemerton in care and maintenance and continue discussions with the market about a pricing model that supports Western hard rock lithium conversion,” a spokesman said. The New York-listed company pumped the brakes on building a fourth lithium hydroxide processing train in WA in January 2024 as prices for the battery mineral collapsed. About six months later it halted construction on a third production train and put its second on care and maintenance.