It will buy a 35% share from Norway’s Norsk Hydro for $46M and will completely own the company.
Rusal said the acquisition was in line with its strategy to develop its own raw material base.
Nearly 5% of the world’s bauxite reserves are in Jamaica and the country has a well-developed alumina production infrastructure.
Vladislav Soloviev, Rusal First Deputy CEO, said: “We believe that Rusal’s internal demand for alumina may rise by 2Mt/y over the next 3-4 years.
As aluminium demand continues to grow globally, we anticipate that in the medium to long term, the limited alumina production capacities will result in demand exceeding supply and lead to rising alumina prices and aluminium production costs.”
Operations were temporarily idled at Alpart in 2009 due to the economic downturn. Rusal is developing ways to resume production at the complex, by converting to coal and gas and other cost-cutting processes (including bauxite mining costs) through a more effective production management and cooperation with domestic suppliers.
Alpart is a large production complex in Jamaica, which uses its own bauxite mines to feed alumina production.
Production capacity at the complex is 1.673Mt/y of cell-grade alumina and 4.9Mt/y of bauxite.
Rusal acquired a 65% stake in Alpart in 2007 following the merger of the Company’s assets with the alumina assets of Swiss-based Glencore.