Vale has approved bauxite and alumina projects
Rio de Janeiro, September 24, 2008 - Companhia Vale do Rio Doce (Vale)
announces that its Board of Directors has approved the construction of a new
alumina refinery, Companhia de Alumina do Par� (CAP), and the expansion of our
Paragominas bauxite mine (Paragominas III), both located at the Brazilian state
of Par�.
CAP will be responsible for the implementation and operation of an
alumina refinery, located in Barcarena, 5 km away from the alumina refinery of
our subsidiary Alunorte. CAP will be 80% owned by Vale, and 20% by Hydro
Aluminium (Hydro).� Hydro, a company
based in Norway, is one of the largest global producers of aluminum and
aluminum products.
The initial production capacity of the refinery will be 1.86 million
metric tons per year (Mtpy) of alumina, through two lines of 930,000 tons per
year.� The new refinery has potential for
future capacity expansions to reach up to 7.4 Mtpy.
The estimated total capex for the first phase of CAP is US$ 2.2 billion.
The project implementation will begin in October 2008 and the operation
start-up is expected for the first half of 2011.
Paragominas III will supply the bauxite to be consumed by the CAP
refinery. The estimated total capex is US$ 487 million and it will increase the
capacity of our Paragominas mine to 14.85 Mtpy from the current 9.9 Mtpy.� Paragominas III is expected to start up its
operations simultaneously with the first stage of CAP, in 1H 2011.
These projects are consistent with our strategy for the aluminum
business, in which the focus is organic growth in the upstream portion of the
aluminum production chain, through the development of its high quality bauxite
reserves and competitive low-cost expansion of alumina production capacity.