Bluff - Aluminium Smelter

On Tiwai Point, on the northeast side of Bluff Harbour, is New Zealand's only aluminum smelter, a joint New Zealand-Japanese enterprise. Since the discovery of large deposits of bauxite at Weipa on the Cape York peninsula in Australia (Queensland), aluminum oxide has been shipped from there to Tiwai Point and smelted in Bluff, the huge quantities of electricity required being provided by the hydroelectric station on Lake Manapouri. The smelter employs some 1200 workers. The aluminum is mainly exported to Japan.