Alumina giant Alcoa is shutting an ageing refinery and axing the facility’s remaining workers. The US-listed company started phasing out its workforce at the 60-year-old Kwinana Alumina Refinery in Western Australia in January 2024. The refinery has about 220 employees, but the workforce will be cut as the closure progresses in 2026. Alcoa would work with stakeholders to safely close the refinery and its residue storage areas, the company said. Production was phased out at the facility during the second quarter of 2024, with the loss of about a thousand jobs at the time.