Meridian Energy's development manager Guy Waipara told Stuff on Friday it had already fielded interest before Thursday’s announcement. He said as soon Rio Tinto announced in July 2021 it planned to close the smelter the approaches started. “This has happened because we’ve had a handful of really big companies, that make Meridian look quite small, approach us about the whole idea.” It would now filter through who was really interested and identifying who they should partner with, he said. “These next two months is the real acid test for it. We are pretty positive we will have some options to work through.”