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China inks $460 mln alumina deal in Vietnam
Vinacomin, Vietnam’s largest coal producer, has signed a contract with a Chinese company to build a US$460 million alumina plant in the Central Highlands, according to a Hanoi government statement.
Vinacomin signed an engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) deal with China Aluminum International Engineering Co. (Chalieco) on Sunday.
Under the agreement, Chalieco will build the plant within two years, a statement issued this week said.
The alumina plant, projected to turn out 600,000 tons of alumina a year, is part of a bauxite and aluminum complex in the Central Highlands province of Lam Dong, 300 kilometers northeast of Ho Chi Minh City.
In 2006, Vietnam began building its first bauxite and alumina complex, the $490 million Tan Rai plant, but a lack of money and domestic power shortages forced the plant developers to skip aluminum production in the complex.
Chalieco is the engineering arm of Aluminum Corp. of China Ltd. (Chalco), China’s largest nonferrous metal company.
Chalieco has placed an order with Marubeni Corp., under which the Japanese firm would support and provide advice on legal and procurement issues on the project, which is due for completion in 2010, Marubeni said in a statement Tuesday.
Vinacomin will start negotiations in the fourth quarter for another EPC contract to build the Nhan Co alumina plant in the same Lam Dong complex, also to produce 600,000 tons of alumina per year, Vinacomin Chairman Doan Van Kien was quoted in the government statement as saying.
Vietnam’s mostly unmined bauxite ore reserves are estimated at between 5.6 billion and 8.3 billion tons, the world’s third-largest after Guinea and Australia.
Bauxite is the raw material used for making alumina, a white powder for producing aluminum.
Vietnam has said it needed about $15.6 billion to invest in major bauxite and alumina refining projects by 2025, to make use of its vast and largely unmined bauxite ore reserves, most of them in the Central Highlands coffee belt.
In May, the government said it would allow Alcoa Inc. to own up to 40 percent of a major alumina mining and refining project in the Central Highlands province of Dak Nong.
Aluminum, used in aircraft and beverage cans, jumped to a record last week after Chinese smelters, the largest in the world, agreed to cut output by as much as 10 percent through September.
Power shortages from China to South Africa have increased on concerns supplies may be curtailed as production costs rise.
Two tons of alumina produce a ton of aluminum.
Alcoa plan
Alcoa Inc., the world’s third-largest aluminum producer, may buy a stake in a proposed 600,000 ton alumina refinery in Vietnam, through a joint venture with Alumina Ltd., New York-based Alcoa said in a June 24 statement.
Alcoa World Alumina and Chemicals, 60 percent owned by Alcoa, is considering buying a 40 percent stake in the proposed Nhan Co refinery and nearby bauxite mine in southern Vietnam, the statement said.
If the transaction proceeds, Nhan Co will be 51 percent owned by Vietnam National Coal-Mineral Industries Group, or Vinacomin, and the remaining 9 percent will be controlled by other investors, Alcoa said.
Chalco has been conducting a feasibility study to develop Vietnam’s Dak Nong bauxite project with Vietnam National Coal-Mineral Industries.
Thanhnien
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