The company which has run into community opposition and court action over its storage of the hazardous material Ouvea Premix has applied for resource consent to construct a storage and processing facility near Invercargill.
Taha Fertilizer Industries Ltd, owned by Bahrain-based company Taha Asia Pacific, has lodged an application with the Invercargill City Council to subdivide 1ha of land in Colyer Rd, within the council-owned Awarua Industrial Park, and develop the site.
It intends to buy the land and has entered into a sale and purchase agreement, consent documents say.
In 2011, Taha built a multimillion-dollar plant at Tiwai aluminium smelter to process dross.
All but 1% of the aluminium in the dross is recycled and the rest, a mix of chemicals known as Ouvea Premix, can be processed into mineral fertiliser.
Ouvea Premix is classified as a hazardous substance.
It gives off ammonia gas if mixed with water, is an irritant if it comes into contact with eyes and skin, and is harmful to aquatic life in waterways.
Taha ran foul of local councils and Mataura residents after they discovered the premix was being stored at the former paper mill without consent.
Kennington residents in March opposed an application to store premix there.
The company faced court action this year over incorrect storage of premix at Edendale and Greenhills, near Bluff.
Council consents officer Christine Edgely this week said Taha had withdrawn an application for the Kennington site and submitted the Awarua applications.
The new consent says Taha still wants retrospective consent for storage at Mataura but would move premix to Awarua once that facility was operating, hopefully within two years.
The smelter produces material for 100 tonnes of premix a week.
Taha has a contract to extract and process dross from the smelter's on-site landfill.
Taha had 20,000 tonnes of premix on hand, the consent said, stored at three sites: Mataura (10,000 tonnes), Annan St, Invercargill (6500 tonnes) and Liddel St, Invercargill (2800 tonnes).
The company planned to export that and build a plant capable of processing 5200 tonnes a year.
The Awarua processing plant would require Environment Southland discharge permits.
Ms Edgely said fertiliser processing was a permitted controlled activity in an industrial zone.
Comments were being sought from council staff. It had not yet been decided whether the consent would be notified and public comments accepted.
Invercargill City Property Ltd chief executive and council finance director Dean Johnstone said earlier this week the sale and purchase agreement was yet to be finalised.
Taha spokesman Lindsay Buckingham could not be reached for comment.
Taha Awarua plant
• Build a plant capable of processing 5200 tonnes of Ouvea Premix a year.
• Development to happen in three stages:
Stage 1: Temporary storage facility requiring three staff and five truck visits a week.
Stage 2: Permanent 1800sq m storage facility.
Stage 3: Small-scale processing plant within the same building, requiring up to 10 staff and up to 40 truck visits a week. Site would have landscaped buffer zone in Colyer Rd and an on-site sewage holding tank.
