PORT Pirie Regional Council mayor John Rohde believes there are many reasons to be optimistic about the future of the city and the surrounding district.
One of the main drivers of this positive outlook is the $514-million transformation of the city's major industry, the Nyrstar lead smelter.
It is the largest primary lead smelter in the world, and Nyrstar is completing a transformation to redevelop the smelter into a polymetallic processing and recovery facility.
This project, which started late last year, is having positive spin-offs for the rest of the city, increasing confidence in the future of Port Pirie.
"There is a lot of positivity about Port Pirie at the moment," Mr Rohde sad.
"Knowing the smelter project is definitely going forward allows us to concentrate on a clean-up of the city.
"The Targeted Lead Abatement Program has been in place for a number of years to address the residual fallout from the smelter, but once the new processes are in place at the smelter, we can concentrate on getting the rest of the city free of pollution and dust."
Mr Rohde said the scale of the investment in the project highlighted the confidence in the city.
"An investment of $514m is an enormous amount for a regional project," he said.
"That scale of investment by a major company into a regional area is almost unheard of.
"It will mean the smelter will become a multi-metal recovery facility, rather than just focusing on lead.
"They will be producing metals from a number of different materials."
The city's smelter celebrated its 125th anniversary last year.
"The smelter has been a constant," he said.
"This upgrade will mean the city has a guaranteed industry for a long period of time, which will help us maintain the city's population and ensure strong growth into the future."
Another exciting project was an upgrade of the town's sporting facilities.
"Our sporting infrastructure has needed an upgrade for some time," he said.
"We are undertaking an upgrade of the city's oval, which will allow us to do things like put in new changerooms, a new bar and meeting area and new lighting."
The new sports precinct will be a multi-use facility.
"As part of the redevelopment we're looking at an update to the swimming centre facilities," he said.
"We're also looking at a new home for squash and gymnastics and other groups like hip-hop dancing and marching."
Preliminary planning and community consultation for the project has been completed.
The council is waiting on confirmation from the state government of their contribution to the project, with total costs expected to amount to $15m.
Mr Rohde said council was hopeful of starting work by early 2016 and an 18-month build-time anticipated.