THE Windimurra vanadium project, for which the State Government ploughed more than $30 million into a gas pipeline and other regional infrastructure, has been shut because of record low prices for the specialty metal.
London-based owner Xstrata switched off Australia's only vanadium mine on Monday, less than three years after the $128 million project was commissioned.
Xstrata subsidiary Vanadium Australia managing director Tony Simpson said the operation could be restarted if prices recovered.
The price is $US1.70 to $1.80 a pound, or about half what was assumed in the feasibility study. The Mt Magnet operation was developed by Roderick Smith's Precious Metals Australia.
- Michael Weir
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