Russia's Rusal, the world's third-largest aluminium producer, will acquire an alumina and bauxite complex in Guinea that it has to date been managing under a long-term contract, the company said on Monday.
"The value of the transaction, including investments in the modernisation of the complex and raising its capacity, is estimated at over $300 million in the next three years," Rusal spokeswoman Vera Kurochkina said.
Under an agreement with the government of Guinea, Rusal has committed to nearly double the capacity of Alumina Company of Guinea/Friguia's (ACG/Friguia) bauxite and alumina complex, the Russian company said in a statement.
The current design capacity of the plant, the only operating alumina refinery in Guinea, is 600,000 tonnes of alumina and 2.8 million tonnes of bauxite a year.
Rusal said last year it hoped to commission the first stage of a new unit that would raise Friguia's capacity to 1.5 million tonnes in 2009 and was also looking at building a new refinery at the huge Dian-Dian deposit in north-west Guinea.
Kurochkina said Rusal expected to nearly double bauxite and alumina capacities at the complex in the next two years.
The privatisation of state-owned ACG/Friguia will be completed through the purchase by Rusal of a 100 percent stake in state-owned Friguia SA and a final 15 percent stake owned by the state in the Alumina Company of Guinea Limited, Rusal said.
Guinea holds two-thirds of the world's bauxite reserves. Aside from ACG/Friguia, Rusal also manages mining company Compagnie des Bauxites de Kindia on the basis of a 25-year concession agreement with the Guinean government.
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