A large red dust cloud has formed south of Wollongong, following a steelmaking mishap at Port Kembla.
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BlueScope general manager manufacturing, John Nowlan, confirmed the plume came from the Basic Oxygen Steelmaking plant.
“At around 5pm this afternoon there was a significant roof emission from the BOS plant at the steelworks,” he said.
“The short-lived plume of red iron oxide was caused by a reaction to some recycled liquid steel in the BOS vessel.”
Such mishaps occur occasionally when an imperfect balance of steelmaking ingredients causes some molten iron to overflow from the BOS vessel.
A dust cloud plumes through the roof once the material hits the ground.
Bluescope will report the matter to the Environmental Protection Authority.