'Who Closed Southern Copper?

This paper considers the closure of the Port Kembla copper smelter and refinery, Southern Copper Limited, in 1995, after over eighty five years of unbroken operation and a change of ownership to CRA in 1981. It argues that the closure is most accurately understood as a resolution reflecting the exigencies of CRA's business situation at the time. The decision was taken as Southern Copper faced increasingly heavy pressures including a strengthening Australian dollar, demanding environmental standards and community expectations. These pressures were faced at a time when both the industrial relations climate and the manufacturing sector were undergoing significant change. The paper suggests that the strength and actions of the IJIawarra unions played little part, if any, in the decision to close the smelter, despite local mythology and CRA statement to the contrary.