Australia's manganese processing gap: what Bell Bay's collapse means for steel and battery supply chains
Australia is among the world's top five manganese producers. In 2022, the country produced 4,500 kt of manganese ore and holds 496,000 kt in economic demonstrated resources. Manganese is on the national Critical Minerals List, essential for both steelmaking and the emerging EV battery supply chain. And yet in March 2026, Liberty Bell Bay, Australia's only manganese alloy smelter, entered voluntary administration.
The implications extend well beyond a single Tasmanian plant.
Classification and origin
Manganese is the fourth most used metal globally. Roughly 90 per cent of consumption goes to steel production as ferroalloys. The emerging growth driver is high-purity manganese sulphate (HPMSM) for EV battery cathodes, where manganese-rich chemistries (NMC, LNMO) are gaining share because they reduce reliance on cobalt and nickel.
Australian deposits are predominantly sedimentary, formed through chemical precipitation of manganese oxides in shallow marine Proterozoic basins. Groote Eylandt in the Northern Territory hosts one of the world's highest-grade manganese deposits within the Carpentaria Basin, with supergene enrichment concentrating oxide ores near surface. In Western Australia, Element 25's Butcherbird project is a sedimentary manganese system hosted in Proterozoic Collier Group sediments.
Key deposits and the restart picture
Groote Eylandt (GEMCO), operated by South32, suspended production after Cyclone Megan in March 2024. Phased restart began in May 2025, with full capacity expected through 2026. The restart is projected to lift global manganese supply by 3.3 per cent, partially offsetting suspensions in Kazakhstan and flat output from South Africa, Gabon and Ghana.
Element 25 (ASX: E25) is advancing Butcherbird, Australia's largest onshore manganese resource at 274 Mt at 10 per cent Mn. The expansion feasibility targets 1.1 Mtpa concentrate production with an 18-year mine life. Element 25's downstream ambition is a US-based HPMSM refinery backed by a US$166 million Department of Energy grant and offtake agreements with Stellantis and General Motors.
The Bell Bay gap
Liberty Bell Bay, near George Town in northern Tasmania, produced ferromanganese and silicomanganese for the Australian steel industry under Liberty Steel Australia, part of GFG Alliance. Operations halted in mid-2025 amid ore supply issues and financial difficulties. A A$20 million Tasmanian government loan for manganese ore procurement in August 2025 was followed by default. Voluntary administration was triggered in March 2026 with Ernst and Young appointed.
Approximately 175 workers face layoffs. A joint federal-state A$3 million loan is covering three weeks of wages while administrators seek a buyer. ASIC dropped its separate winding-up case on 30 April 2026, removing one obstacle to a potential sale. Unions and both levels of government have emphasised the smelter's strategic importance: without Bell Bay, Australian steelmakers will rely entirely on imported manganese alloys.
The gap this exposes is straightforward. Australia mines manganese at world-class scale and exports ore. It does not, at this point, process manganese alloys domestically. The A$1.2 billion Critical Minerals Strategic Reserve, enacted in early April 2026, is designed to de-risk investment in exactly this kind of downstream processing, but its initial focus is antimony, gallium and rare earths. Manganese processing is not yet in the picture.
The talent demand question
GEMCO's restart across the NT, Element 25's development timeline in the Pilbara, and the broader policy push for downstream critical minerals processing are generating demand for mine geologists, metallurgists with manganese processing experience, and project development engineers. If Bell Bay finds a buyer and restarts, smelter operations staff will be needed in Tasmania on short timelines.
At Norwest Exploration and Mining Services, we specialise in rapid deployment of contract geologists, field technicians and mining professionals to critical minerals projects across Australia. As manganese moves from an assumed-stable input to an actively contested supply chain, the workforce to support both upstream mining and any future downstream processing becomes a strategic question, not just an operational one.
Australia mines the metal. The question now is whether it can process it.