Russian aluminum major Rusal has expressed interest in taking over thestalled Aurukun bauxite project in the Australian state of Queensland,according to a local media report.
Rusal executives initiated talks with the Queensland state government's Natural Resources Minister Stephen Robertson on August 25, a month after theAluminum Corporation of China or Chalco ended its talks with the stategovernment over the project, The Weekend Australian reported.
Chalco was granted permits in 2007 to develop a world scale bauxite minenear the town of Aurukun in the remote western Cape York region of the state,where reserves were considered sufficient to support production at 6.5 millionmt/year of dry beneficated bauxite.
As part of the permit conditions, it agreed to build a 3.3 millionmt/year alumina refinery at Abbot Point, south of Townsville in the state'snortheast, and bauxite-loading port facilities north of Aurukun to link thetwo.
But Chalco and the government agreed to terminate the talks in July,citing deteriorating global conditions in the aluminum industry and a 30%decline in global aluminum prices in the three years since the agreement wassigned.
French company Pechiney had been given the right to develop a bauxitemine at Aurukun in 1975, but the state government reclaimed the concessions in2004 after Pechiney was taken over by Alcan, which itself was later taken overby Rio Tinto, The Australian reported.
Rusal has a 20% interest in Queensland Alumina Limited or QAL's 3.95million mt/year alumina refinery in Gladstone in Queensland alongside RioTinto Alcan, 80%.
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