YAOUNDE, Cameroon -- The Association of French Entrepreneurs, Medef International, may decide to invest in Cameroon's aluminum smelter, the Société Camerounaise d'Aluminium, or Alucam, which aims to triple its aluminum output from the current yearly 90,000 metric tons, a Cameroon government official said Saturday.
Alucam, which is 47%-owned by the government, entered a strategic partnership with the world smelting consortium Tinto Alcan, a unit of Rio Tinto PLC, in 2005, and began prospecting to expand the company's yearly alumina output to 300,000 by 2015.
Like all mining and industrial units in Cameroon, the conglomerate suffers from an acute energy deficit, which has forced it to slash 2009-2010 yearly alumina production by about 40%.
"The equation of acquiring sufficient energy is still a big problem for Alucam. Part of this week's meeting with Medef International will be focused on resolving the energy problem suffered by Alucam. Also, Medef could help Alucam secure part or all of the $1.8 billion required for the company's expansion program," said a senior official in Cameroon's ministry of Energy and Water.
"To quicken this move Alucam is looking for partners worldwide to get its energy woes resolved, possibly secure the necessary funds for its expansion, while waiting for existing energy projects to get ready," said the official, who preferred speaking on condition of anonymity.
Alucam entered a 30-year deal last year to secure power supply from AES-Sonel, the Cameroon affiliate of U.S. energy firm, AES Corp. AES will was supply 490 megawatts of electricity to Alucam beginning January 2010, then 250MW by 2015
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