In early October 1877, the company leased five acres of land south of the Yarra River in Melbourne for the purpose of erecting a pipe casting works and planned to spend £20,000 on it. This seems to have been an attempt to expand in a way suited to its limited capital. Cast iron pipes were typically made from malleable or 'grey iron', and so the new plant may not have provided a large market for the 'chromic pigs' after all. However, the company did have a 12-inch iron pipe cast successfully from 'chromic pig' at the Langlands Foundry in Melbourne. In the end, the pipe plant did not eventuate,
