Alcoa’s Brazilian project secures financing

Alcoa Aluminio has secured $255 million from the Brazilian National Development Bank (BNDB), for the development of a bauxite mine.

The company, which forms part of Aloca, Inc, the global aluminium supplier, will use the funds to develop the mine infrastructure and logistics for a site near Juruti, in northern Brazil’s Para state.

The project involves the construction of 55 kilometers of roads and rail track that will connect the mine to new port facilities on the Amazonas river.

The mine is expected to produce 2.6 million metric tons of bauxite per year, when operations commence in mid-2008.

However, Alcoa estimates that it has the potential to expand to an output of 12 million tons of bauxite per year.

The bauxite mined at Juruti will be transported to the Alumar smelter and refinery at Sao Luis in the state of Maranhao, which borders Para. Alcoa owns a 35% share of the plant.

Currently Alcoa has annual installed production capacity in Brazil of approximately 300,000 metric tons of primary aluminium, 800,000 tons of alumina and 2.5 million tons of bauxite.

The investment secured from BNDB represents 22% of the total projects cost.