Alcoa Inc. (AA), the largest U.S. aluminum producer, applied for a five-year extension for environmental approval to expand its Wagerup refinery in Western Australia as the previous consent period expired.
“We applied for a five-year extension of the ministerial approval for the Wagerup unit three expansion in March,” Alcoa’s Australian unit said in an e-mailed statement. “The fact that the initial ministerial approval, not our license, expired in October is irrelevant because we submitted our application for the extension within the required time frame.”
Alcoa suspended its proposed expansion of the Wagerup refinery in November 2008 after the global credit crisis curbed demand. The New York-based company in February said it was seeking an extension of the government approval to expand the refinery, granted for a five-year period in 2006.
Western Australia Environment Minister Bill Marmion is considering an Environment Protection Authority report regarding extending the approval for another five years, the state government said in an e-mailed statement yesterday.
Alumina Ltd. (AWC), Alcoa’s partner in the Alcoa World Alumina & Chemical, or AWAC, venture that operates the Wagerup refinery, fell 2.6 percent to A$1.4075 at 12:18 p.m. Sydney time.
The AWAC venture, 60 percent owned by Alcoa and 40 percent controlled by Melbourne-based Alumina, produces alumina, which is refined into aluminum, used in making aircraft and beverage cans. Alumina is a powder refined from bauxite ore that’s processed into aluminum metal.
Alumina estimated in 2004 it would cost A$1.5 billion to expand the Wagerup refinery to 4.36 million metric tons from 2 million tons. The expansion would cost $4 billion, ABN Amro Holding NV forecast in 2008.
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