Copper Refineries Limited is a major metallurgical processing facility located at Stuart, about 15km south of Townsville in North Queensland.

Operated by Glencore through Copper Refineries Pty Ltd, the refinery is a key component of the North Queensland copper supply chain and forms the final stage of processing for copper mined in the Mount Isa region.

The refinery began operations in 1959, following the expansion of copper mining at Mount Isa. Copper ore mined at Mount Isa is first processed into concentrate and smelted into copper anodes at the Mount Isa smelter.

These anodes are then transported by rail and road to Townsville, where they are refined using the IsaKIDD electrolytic refining process to produce 99.995 per cent pure copper cathode.

The facility has the capacity to produce up to about 300,000t of copper cathode per year, which is used as a raw material in the manufacture of electrical wiring, cabling, electronics and other industrial products.

Employing several hundred workers and supporting a wider regional supply chain, the Townsville Copper Refinery remains one of Australia’s most important copper processing facilities and a cornerstone of the North West Minerals Province copper industry.