The Commonwealth Aluminium Corporation Pty Ltd was formed in 1956 to develop bauxite deposits at Weipa, Queensland. In the following year it entered into a partnership with British Aluminium Co. Ltd. In 1960 British Aluminium withdrew and a new partnership formed between Consolidated Zinc Corporation Ltd and Kaiser Aluminium & Chemical Corporation resulted in the company changing its name to Comalco Industries Pty Ltd and registering in Victoria on 15 Dec 1960. Comalco was to manage and market products from an integrated group of aluminium companies. Based on the mining of bauxite from Weipa and Aurukun, the company operates aluminium smelters at Bell Bay, Queensland; Gladstone, Tasmania; and Bluff, New Zealand. In 1962 Kaiser Aluminium sold its interests to CRA and other companies. The company listed on the stock exchange in 1970 and issued a small shareholding to the public, at the same time changing its name to Comalco Ltd, but Rio Tinto Ltd acquired the remaining shares that it did not own in 1960 and the company was delisted. It is now a wholly owned subsidiary of Rio Tinto Ltd.

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