From the top of a giant furnace, workers in breathing apparatus and high-visibility overalls peer down on a sprawling industrial plant and map out renovations. Rain lashes the rusting buildings below as strong winds threaten to rip the hard hats from their heads.
It’s make-or-break time for the Port Pirie smelter in South Australia, which has turned rock into lead, copper, gold and silver for more than 130 years. Once a symbol of industrial might, the plant is struggling — squeezed by high costs and competition from China that have battered the rest of the world’s processing capacity.
Smelter ...