January 22, 2009 - KUCHING: Sarawak Aluminium Co (Salco) – a joint venture between Rio Tinto Alcan and Cahya Mata Sarawak Bhd – is in advanced negotiations with Sarawak Energy Bhd on the supply of power to its proposed US$3bil aluminium smelter project in Samalaju Industrial Park, Bintulu.
Rio Tinto business development Asia director Matt Liddy, however, gave no indication on when the negotiations could be concluded.
“The negotiation is on a price of power that is acceptable to Salco,” he told StarBiz after presenting a paper at the Sarawak Business Summit yesterday.
Liddy said the power would come from the Bakun hydroelectric dam, which could generate up to 2,400MW.
He said Rio Tinto was expected to make an investment decision on the project in 12 months as it had to first ensure the power supply and other necessary infrastructure, like the proposed Samalaju port from where Salco will ship out its prooduct, would be in place.
He said the Rio Tinto group considered the proposed smelter as a “very good” project although it had cancelled some proposed projects in other countries due to the global economic meltdown.
Confirming that the Sarawak project was on track, he said works now under way included a detailed environmental impact assessment study on air quality, noise, land use as well as the flora and fauna.
Earlier during his presentation, Liddy said Salco would be talking to potential suppliers for the project in the next 12 months.
He said the smelter would have an initial production capacity of 720,000 tonnes of aluminium per year. The smelter is expected to come on stream by 2013. The capacity could be raised to 1.5 million tonnes a year.
”The smelter will create 1,500 direct jobs. We are developing pre-work training programmes,” he added.
