By Emmanuel Tumanjong
Special to DOW JONES NEWSWIRES
YAOUNDE, Cameroon-Canadian metal giant Rio Tinto Alcan has said
it will quit a consortium it formed with Cameroon's smelter
Aluminium du Cameroun, known as Alucam, in December.
"Rio Tinto is proud of its long participation in the Alucam
Group over several decades; however, the Alucam Group's new
business model no longer fits with our strategy," said president
and chief executive of Rio Tinto Alcan, Arnaud Soriat, in a
statement published this week.
The Cameroon government, which owns 46.67% of Alucam--the same
amount as Rio Tinto Alcan, built the smelter in 1957. The French
Development Agency controls 5.6% of Alucam shares, while the
remainder 1.1% is held by Alucam's employees, according to data
from Alucam.
There are plans to increase Alucam's alumina output from 90,000
metric tons a year to around 300,000 tons yearly by 2017. But
energy shortages have forced Alucam's aluminum output to plunge in
recent years to around 80,000-60,000 tons/year, according to its
figures.
The expansion of Alucam has hinged on a gigantic
hydroelectricity scheme, through which Rio Tinto planned to
increase power supply by 330 megawatts.
Rio Tinto also had another scheme to erect a second hydropower
plant with 930 megawatts of electricity in the Atlantic coastal
town of Kribi, where it had aimed to build Cameroon's second
smelter with a capacity to produce 800,000 tons of aluminum
yearly.
Rio Tinto Alcan said it has also offered to help the government
of Cameroon to find a new investor in the Alucam Group.
Write to Emmanuel Tumanjong at
realtimedesklondon@dowjones.com
Subscribe to WSJ: http://online.wsj.com?mod=djnwires