Rusal buys 56.2% stake in Italy's EurAllumina plant

Russian aluminium major Rusal said Friday it has completed an agreement with Rio Tinto to purchase a 56.16% stake in the EurAllumina alumina refinery in Italy. The remaining 43.8% share of EurAllumina is owned by Glencore. Ownership of the asset will be consolidated under United Company Rusal, when the merger of Rusal, Sual and Glencore's alumina assets is completed in 2007.

Alexander Bulygin, Rusal's CEO, said: "The acquisition of this stake is an important step in the consolidation of EurAllumina into United Company Rusal. EurAllumina will provide an additional annual input of 600,000 mt of alumina."

Rusal is the world's third largest primary aluminium producer, accounting for 75% of aluminium production in Russia and 10% internationally.

The EurAllumina alumina refinery, located at Portoscuso, Italy, has a capacity of 1 million mt/year, and consumes 2.2 million mt/year of bauxite from the Weipa mine in Queensland, Australia.

The planned merger of Rusal, Sual, and the alumina assets of Glencore, will create United Company Rusal, with combined output of 4 million mt/year of aluminium and 11 million mt/year of alumina. The deal, agreed in October, will be finalized by April 2007, the companies said earlier.