In 2011, Taha built a multimillion dollar plant at the Tiwai aluminium smelter.
Aluminium is recycled from the smelting dross and Taha plans to turn the leftover Ouvea premix material into mineral fertiliser.
It is looking for a site in Southland to establish a factory. In the meantime, it needs somewhere to store the premix.
But Ouvea premix is considered a hazardous material and residents do not want it near their homes or waterways.
Last year, Environment Southland ordered Taha to remove a material which could have been aluminium dross or premix from a site near Edendale being used without consent.
Two weeks ago, Taha abandoned plans to manufacture fertiliser in the former Carter Holt Harvey paper mill at Mataura and apologised to residents for not seeking resource consent to store premix there. It is now seeking retrospective consent.
Now, Taha is seeking consent from the Invercargill City Council to store 11,4000 tonnes of premix - 5000 tonnes per annum - in a building at Kennington, about 15km east of the city.
The council has publicly notified the consent, with submissions closing on March 18.
More than 60 Kennington residents attended a meeting on Wednesday, saying they did not trust Taha to store the premix safely and were concerned it could enter the nearby Waihopai Stream.
Taha spokesman Simon King said after the meeting Taha wanted to ''do the right thing'' at Kennington and apply for consent before it began storing premix there. The company realised the Mataura situation ''should not have developed the way it did'', he said.
Environment Southland compliance manager Simon Mapp and Invercargill City Council resource consents manager Terry Boylan said last week Taha had been granted air discharge and land use consents in 2011 and 2012 to operate a small scale trial fertiliser plant in Bond St, in Invercargill's central city industrial area.
They did not know whether the plant had ever operated.
Mr King said Taha was not currently processing any premix into fertiliser.
He said the plan was to start a factory with sufficient capacity to process 100% of the premix production from Tiwai, plus the premix in storage.
Building a new factory or taking over an existing building and adapting it were both options, he said.
He declined to give the likely cost, saying it was ''company confidential information''.
Ouvea premix
• Powder or granules left over from processing of aluminium dross from the New Zealand Aluminium Smelters' Tiwai Point smelter, south of Invercargill
• Can be further manufactured into mineral fertiliser and has industrial uses, including as a cement, asphalt or paint additive
• Is a hazardous substance. Classified as a Class 6 poisonous substance under the Invercargill city district plan, it poses a threat to human health if incorrectly stored or used
• Gives off a strong smell of ammonia if mixed with water
• Environment Southland concerned premix could damage waterways or underground aquifers if incorrectly stored
