Carbon tax 'not to blame' for Gove closure

RIO Tinto boss Sam Walsh has said the carbon tax is not to blame for the closure of its Gove alumina refinery in the Northern Territory.

Mr Walsh, speaking in Sydney today after an investor briefing, said that while the carbon tax had obviously put pressure on energy-intensive industries, it was not the driver of its decision to close Gove.

Describing the decision to close the refinery outside Nhublunbuy as the hardest decision he has had to make in his life, Mr Walsh said the economics of the operation were hit by other factors such as the high Australian dollar.

"Carbon tax is pressure on any energy intensive export industry," he said.

"We are competing with similar industries overseas that weren't having to carry that in their saddle. But the Gove decision was on the basis of the straight economics. The impact of the strong Australian dollar and low alumina prices - those were the key factors there."

He said the global miner looked at every option it could to keep the business operating and conducted several studies but with the losses it was seeing in the business it was "seriously hard".

Mr Walsh added that Rio could not see a way of lifting it out of a $30 million a month loss at Gove.

"You are impacting on a range of the community people, businesses, the Territory. But the business has been losing $30 million a month ... if that continues over a year that is $360m, so that is a lot of money," he said.