Staff at the aluminium smelter near Fort William have been told that the owner is reviewing its operations and will make an announcement later this month.

The announcement from Rio Tinto (www.riotinto.com) said that “the review will include our assets in Lochaber”. The plant is one of the largest employers in the area, supporting more than 160 full-time jobs — around a quarter of them managers and technical specialists.

The Scottish Executive government said that Highlands and Islands Enterprise was “engaging with the company” to “understand the potential impacts” of the announcement. The smelter, which opened in 1929, is Rio Tinto’s only operational site in the UK and gets its power from two hydro-electric schemes — one in Fort William and the other at nearby Kinlochleven (a second Scottish smelter, at Kinlochleven, was closed in 2000).

When Rio Tinto Alcan closed its smelter in Lynemouth (Northumberland) in 2012, it was seen as a “significant challenge” for the sole remaining UK plant in Lochaber. At the time, the plant manager wrote: “There were significant synergies and economies of scale that the Lynemouth operations provided in raw-material supply and functional expertise and support. Lochaber is now essentially a stand-alone business in the UK and has had to adapt quickly to this new mode of operation.”

Lochaber is the smallest of the nine smelters that Rio Tinto owns in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, France and Oman. It produced 47,000 tonnes of aluminium last year, while the whole group produced 3.322 million tonnes. Chief
executive Sam Walsh said that the firm is “rigorously controlling” its cost base: “We will continue to focus on disciplined management of costs and capital to maximise our cash-flow throughout 2016.”

A Scottish Executive government spokesman said: “This is an anxious time for Rio Tinto workers and their families. We are fully committed to working with the industry during these challenging times.”