Orica resumes ammonium nitrate, nitric acid production

Orica has resumed ammonium nitrate production at its Newcastle plant after repeated chemical leaks almost shut down the site. Kooragang Island manager Sean Winstone says the company successfully restarted some of the site's nitric acid and ammonium nitrate plants over the weekend but the ammonia plant will remain closed.

“We took our time with the start-up,” Winstone said in a statement. “Our primary focus was to ensure that the start-up of each plant was completed safely.

“Now that we have successfully restarted these plants, we have resumed production of ammonium nitrate and have begun to distribute this to customers in the Hunter Valley.

“As we continue to restart activities on the remaining nitric acid and ammonium nitrate plants, our production volumes will steadily increase.”

The ammonia plant will remain closed until the Prevention Notices issued in August by the Office of Environment and Heritage are lifted, the company said. The Orica site has been almost shut down since an ammonia vapour leak on 9 November led to two railway workers being taken to hospital.

In the latest incident, about 20,000 litres of weak ammonium nitrate solution overflowed from a tank during pumping operations last week.

Source: AAP NewsWire