Rio Tinto to invest $1.8b in Australian metals plant
Wednesday, 4 July 2007
LONDON, July 3 (AFP): Anglo-Australian mining group Rio Tinto said Tuesday that it planned to invest US$1.8 billion (1.3 billion euros) to expand its aluminium plant in the northeastern Australian state of Queens-land.
The world's second-largest mining group said the investment would more than double annual production at its Yarwun alumina refinery at Gladstone, increasing output by two million tonnes to 3.4 million tonnes by 2011.
Rio Tinto said it would take bauxite, an aluminium ore, from its Weipa mine in northern Queensland.
Production of aluminium has been rising to keep pace with surging demand for the metal in the past decade.
World output was 58.4 million tonnes in 2006, according to figures from the London-based International Aluminium Institute, after 40.8 million tonnes in 1996 and 22.7 million in 1976.
The world's second-largest mining group said the investment would more than double annual production at its Yarwun alumina refinery at Gladstone, increasing output by two million tonnes to 3.4 million tonnes by 2011.
Rio Tinto said it would take bauxite, an aluminium ore, from its Weipa mine in northern Queensland.
Production of aluminium has been rising to keep pace with surging demand for the metal in the past decade.
World output was 58.4 million tonnes in 2006, according to figures from the London-based International Aluminium Institute, after 40.8 million tonnes in 1996 and 22.7 million in 1976.