On the Aluminum Front:
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February 15, 2010 - Rio Tinto Alcan plans to invest US$7.6 million in Beauharnois to continue serving the aluminum primary foundry market.
Thanks to this investment, the Québec facility will maintain casting production and serve its primary foundry market customers. Construction work and other preparations are under way, and additional capacity could be online as early as this spring.
"Rio Tinto is a leader in the supply of primary aluminum alloys to the North American casting sector. This investment will maintain our previous production levels at Beauharnois without interruption, and serve our foundry small form customers over the long term," said Gordon Hamilton, vice president, Metal Management Sales & Marketing, Rio Tinto Alcan. "We remain well positioned to continue our leadership in the North American market and develop innovative casting products to serve our clients."
Source: Rio Tinto Alcan
Upgrading Work Continues at Alcoa Smelter
The pre-feasibility study on work at Alcoa's Baie-Comeau smelter is expected to continue until the end of the year. A total of $1.2 billion is being invested to modernize the facility and enable the company to meet new environmental standards, which take effect in 2015.
"Our plans are coming together. We've known for a long time that we would be replacing our three sets of Söderberg cells with prebake cells, but we still have to determine the intensity at which they will be operated," said Luc Bourassa, Communications Director at Alcoa's Baie-Comeau smelter.
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Operations are currently proceeding on schedule, and the first set of cells should be completely dismantled by the end of the year.
The feasibility study will be carried out in 2011, and construction of the building housing the new cells should start in 2012.
If everything goes as planned, the cells should be operational by the end of 2015. The upgrade will boost the plant's production capacity by 25% and generate economic spin-offs valued at $470 million a year.
Source: Portrait 2010—Côte-Nord, Martine Letarte, La Presse Affaires, Thursday, February 25, 2010
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