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[May 2005]
Alcoa and Jamaican Government Expand Jamalco Alumina Plant
Alcoa (New York, USA) has announced that its Alcoa World Alumina & Chemicals (AWAC) affiliate and the Government of Jamaica have approved plans to immediately expand the Jamalco alumina refinery in Clarendon, Jamaica by 150,000 metric tons per year (mtpy) as the first phase of the overall 1.5 million mtpy capacity expansion.
This first phase will cost approximately US$77 million, with the commitment of another US$25 million to finalise detailed engineering on the full project over the next three months. Full production from the first phase is expected by the end of 2006.
"This investment pulls forward a portion of our plan to expand the Jamalco facility by more than 1.5 million metric tons," said Bernt Reitan, President of Alcoa Primary Products. "There is concrete evidence of progress in our Jamalco facility and it has earned the right to grow. Pulling forward a portion of our larger expansion will allow us to leverage globally with other brownfield projects to reduce our costs and gain efficiencies."
A final investment decision on the larger expansion project, which would more than double the refinery's total capacity to at least 2.8 million mtpy, is expected in the third quarter of 2005.
ENDS