Alcoa May Be Forced to Halt Brazil Mine on Pollution

Dec. 17 (Bloomberg) -- Alcoa Inc.’s bauxite mine operations in the Amazon may be halted because of pollution charges by a Brazilian state against the largest U.S. aluminum maker. Para state prosecutors said in an e-mailed statement today that Alcoa hasn’t implemented environmental- protection measures that were required when the license to the Juruti bauxite mine was granted this year. The mine, a 3.9 billion-real ($2.2 billion) investment financed by Brazil’s state development BNDES bank, will produce bauxite for the Alumar alumina refinery in Brazil’s Maranhao state. The refinery is a joint venture between Alcoa, BHP Billiton Plc and Rio Tinto Alcan Inc. The company must monitor and control local water and other environmental conditions after muddying the streams that provide drinking water for local inhabitants through the use of earthmoving machines and tree cutting, the prosecutors said. Para state prosecutors carried out a survey of environmental conditions in the area, they said. “Alcoa has yet to receive the filing from the ministry, but once we do we’ll review and address it properly,” Kevin Lowery, an Alcoa spokesman in the U.S., said in an e-mail. Alcoa started up the Juruti mine in September. The mine has start-up output of 2.6 million tons a year. To contact the reporter on this story: Diana Kinch in Rio de Janeiro at dkinch1@bloomberg.net