UC RUSAL and China Power Investment Corporation announce strategic partnership

UC RUSAL is pleased to announce that it has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with China Power Investment Corporation (CPI) for a strategic partnership to create a vertically integrated aluminium production complex. The complex will consist of a bauxite-alumina complex in Guinea and an energy and metal complex in China.

The memorandum states that UC RUSAL will become CPI’s partner in the construction of an aluminium smelter with a minimum capacity of 500,000 tn per annum.  The smelter will be located in Qinghai Province, China, with its energy supply sourced from CPI's hydropower facilities on the Huang He River.  At the same time, CPI will become UC RUSAL’s partner in the construction of a bauxite-alumina complex in Guinea, which will have a capacity up to 2.8 mln tn of alumina per annum.

The partnership between these two projects will result in the creation of a vertically integrated aluminium production complex.  UC RUSAL will hold a stake of up to 49% in the aluminium smelter in China, and CPI will hold up to 49% of the bauxite-alumina complex in Guinea. The parties will finance the projects in proportion to their ownership and will create a working group to conduct an audit and feasibility study that is planned to be completed by the middle of 2008. The joint project may commence in 2009.

 

About CPI

China Power Investment Corporation (CPI) is one of China’s largest energy corporations with a capacity of 37,800 MW, of which 24.4% comes from hydro units, 72% from thermal units and 3.6% from nuclear units. CPI has 168 member companies/institutions and 15 participating companies with 83,086 employees in total. As of the end of 2006, the total assets of CPI amounted to 177,831 bln RMB.