(Jamaica Gleaner) ALUMINIUM GIANT UC Rusal says it is seeking the Jamaican Government’s “support” to reopen the Kirkvine and Alpart plants, but Mining and Energy Minister Phillip Paulwell said he has lost patience with the Russian company and has signalled that he is prepared to go even further to revoke its licences for mining at Ewarton.
Paulwell already advised the company on July 1 that he will be revoking licences for the Kirkvine and Alpart plants, if they fail to restart operations in six months.
The plants have been shuttered for five years, since 2009.
Rusal, in an email response to the Financial Gleaner, said restarting the Kirkvine and Alpart alumina plants “will not be possible without time-consuming and expensive re-equipment and modernisation that are necessary for converting them to coal or gas-firing”.
The company also said it will be holding discussions with the Jamaican Government “in the near future” to work out a way forward.
“We believe the modernisation and the restart of closed plants are almost impossible without the support of the Government in the current situation,” Rusal said, while adding that it “considers its Jamaican assets as strategically important and will keep on taking all possible measures to restart competitive production at the plants”.
Paulwell told the Financial Gleaner that he will be meeting with representatives of Rusal in Kingston today, but said emphatically: “I am not going to withdraw this notice.”
No patience
He said Rusal, which is the world’s largest aluminium company, has not been definitive on either the level or kind of government support it is seeking, or what it is prepared to do in order to undertake the reopening of the plants.
“It has been too general; and every time we ask them for specific commitments in relation to the reopening of both plants, we do not get it. I have really run out of patience with them, totally,” Paulwell said.
Mining operations at Kirkvine in Manchester and Alpart in St Elizabeth were stopped in 2009 at the height of the global recession. The minister has said the closures have left 200 million tonnes of bauxite reserves idling in the ground.
At the time, the crisis in the global aluminium industry was caused by a decrease in the demand of alumina due to unfavourable market conditions and high production costs.
In addition, bauxite companies have cited high energy costs as an impediment for doing business on the island.
