After two years of testing at the Alcoa-managed aluminium smelter in Portland, Victoria, Ausmelt commercial manager Jim Fogarty said the technology is almost ready for commercial application.

"Thiess will bring its construction and operational skills - as well as its strong balance sheet - to the project, but the exact details of its involvement have yet to be thrashed out," he said.

SPL, a toxic by-product of the aluminium smelting process, contains cyanide-forming materials and fluorine and poses a significant environmental problem for aluminium smelters around the world. It is especially dangerous if it comes into contact with water.

With in excess of 600,000 tonnes of the material produced worldwide each year, disposal is a major problem, Fogarty said. At the moment, it is bagged and placed into drums for storage.

Ausmelt's solution involves smelting the material at 1200C, which destroys the cyanide-forming substances and turns the fluorine into a gas. The fluorine is then captured and re-used in the aluminium smelting process.

"Several other SPL disposal technologies are being developed around the world, but ours is in the latter developmental stages and is at least as advanced as that of our main competitor," Fogarty said.