Cameroon and Rio Tinto sign production accords

YAOUNDE — Cameroon and a subsidiary of Anglo-Australian mining firm Rio Tinto have signed an agreement to build an aluminium plant and a hydroelectric dam, the state daily Cameroon Tribune reported Thursday. The agreement signed by Prime Minister Philemon Yang and Jean-Philippe Puig of Rio Tinto Alcan (RTA) also provides for a deep water port and is initially worth 3.8 million euros ((5.3 million dollars), the paper said. The aluminium plant with a production of 400,000 tonnes per year will be built at Kribi, like the port, while the hydroelectric dam, with a planned capacity of 930 megawatts, will be at Song Mbengue, also in the south. Work on building the factory will begin at the end of 2011 and will create 30,000 jobs, while aluminium production should begin in 2016. Puig said that the project will be "one of the most important in sub-Saharan Africa in years to come and will enable Cameroon to become one of the major aluminium producing countries," according to the paper. Rio Tinto Alcan is already the majority shareholder in the aluminium company Alucam, which produces about 90,000 tonnes per year at Edea in south Cameroon