RUSAL expands alumina capacities in Guinea and Guyana, has plans in Venezuela, India

RUSAL has aggressive plans to expand its refining of the intermediate product alumina to match its rapidly growing smelting business. Under a 10 year strategic development plan adopted by company's management last year RUSAL will nearly double its metal output to 5 mn tonnes in 2013. It aims to boost alumina output to 8 mn tonnes from 3.1 mn in 2004. The main increase by 2008 is expected to be provided by Australia's Queensland Alumina (QAL) in which RUSAL purchased a 20% stake last year. This year RUSAL will receive just 60,000 tonnes of QAL's alumina, but after the existing QAL supply contracts start to run out, RUSAL will receive 580,000 tonnes in 2006, 650,000 in 2007, and 770,000 per year from 2008. RUSAL expects to commission in 2008 the first stage of a new unit at its Friguia refinery in Guinea, which will increase its capacity to 1.5 mn tonnes in 2009 from around 780,000 now. New facilities will be launched in 2008 at the Mykolayiv refinery in Ukraine which will raise capacity to 1.6 mn tonnes in 2009, from current 1.3 mn. Prior to that in 2007, RUSAL will upgrade its Russian Achinsk refinery for it to produce 1.1 mn instead of 1.06 mn now. The company is also examining building a refinery in Guyana, where it is involved in bauxite mining. It is in talks with Venezuelan and Indian authorities on involvement in alumina production in those countries. It also plans to bid at a tender to develop a 500 mn tonne Aurukun bauxite deposit in Australia. (Reuters - 04/29/05)