Rio Confirms Looking Postpone Of Smelter Project In SA

Rio Tinto openly confirmed that they are seeking to postpone Coega aluminum smelter project in South Africa due to power shortage in the country. This was confirmed by Rio Tinto Alcan CEO Richard Evans in an interview with Bloomberg, “We've gone to them and offered to defer the project as opposed to taking a legalistic approach,” Evans said, “We think it's in our long-term interest to work with the government to make sure the power is fully there and we are not competing with residential use at the point we start up a smelter.” Rio signed a preliminary power supply agreement with South African state-run power company Eskom in 2006, but Rio didn’t formally start the project, which had been planned to come on stream in 2010, before power shortage broke up in the country. Rio now is concentrating on other smelters such as 550,000 tpy SALCO smelter in Malaysia and 700,000 tpy AL Ruwais smelter in Abu Dhabi. Continuing, Rio is considering a large amount of investment in an existing smelter in Quebec. COPYRIGHT All rights reserved. The copying, republication or redistribution of WAM News Content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of WAM.