Russia’s RUSAL, Guinea agree to restart operation of Friguia mine

MOSCOW, Apr 28 (PRIME) -- Russian aluminum giant UC RUSAL and Guinea have signed an agreement to resume operation of the Friguia bauxite and alumina complex in January 2017 and an additional agreement to a concession agreement on the Dian-Dian bauxite field, RUSAL said in a statement Thursday.

“The parties agreed that the operations of the Friguia bauxite and alumina complex will resume in January 2017. According to the document, RUSAL will develop a set of measures to restart the refinery and,12 months after first production, will then gradually increase the site’s production capacity to 550,000-600,000 tonnes of alumina per year,” the company said.

“RUSAL will prepare a draft project alongside a social and economic feasibility study to modernize Friguia with the possibility of increasing its production capacity by up to 1.050 million tonnes per year. By the end of 2020, the parties will make a decision on the project realization and the implementation time is estimated at no less than 3 years.”

The agreement on the Dian-Dian mine envisages implementation of the project separated in three stages.

“The first stage shall be completed by the end of 2017 and foresees the construction of a mine with the annual bauxite capacity of 3 million tonnes. The second stage is expected to be completed by late 2021 and foresees an increase in mining capacity by up to 6 million tonnes per year as well as the development of a project to increase the mine’s annual capacity to 9 million tonnes with a further possibility to make this amount reach 12 million tonnes,” the company said.

“By the end of 2020 the parties will discuss possible opportunities to build an alumina refinery with an annual capacity of 1.2 million tonnes of alumina.”

End