Feb. 6 -- BHP Billiton Ltd., the world's largest mining company, is considering digging a bauxite mine and building an aluminum refinery in the Democratic Republic of Congo to exploit potential supplies of cheap hydropower.
The company, based in Melbourne, is studying the deposit in the country's southwest Bas-Congo province, near the Inga hydropower station on the Congo river, Benedict M'Poko, Congo's ambassador to South Africa, said today in an interview at the Mining Indaba conference in Cape Town. He gave no further details.
BHP Billiton already produces aluminum at refineries in South Africa and Mozambique, where it secured cheap supplies of power from Eskom Holdings Ltd. Now that utility's capacity is running short of demand, BHP Billiton is seeking new sources of power. It has turned to the Congo, which last year completed its first presidential election, five years after the end of a civil war that left 4 million dead.
The project would require a deepwater port and the rehabilitation of the Inga plant, M'Poko said. The government is seeking investors to help finance the upgrade of the Inga I and II turbines, which together generate 1,800 megawatts of electricity. It's also studying the construction of a third phase to provide as much as 3,500 megawatts and a fourth, called Grande Inga, which could generate 40,000 megawatts for supply to most of southern and central Africa.
Illtud Harri, BHP Billiton's spokesman, wasn't immediately available when telephoned by Bloomberg.
Aside from its traditional exports of gold, diamonds and copper, Congo's government is trying to stoke interest in prospecting for other minerals, like bauxite, methane gas and iron ore. An iron-ore deposit has been found in the country's east, and ore could be exported through the port of Nairobi if a rail link is repaired and upgraded, M'Poko said.
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