MOSCOW, March 16 (Reuters) - Confusion surrounded Russian metals companies' plans in South Africa on Friday on the eve of a visit to the resource-rich country by a Russian government delegation headed by Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov.
South Africa is interested in cooperation with Russia's top aluminium firm RUSAL in building a 750,000-tonne smelter and a 1,300 megawatt power station, the Russian Natural Resources Ministry said on Friday.
"Currently, RUSAL is looking for coal deposits and energy sources for further developing this project," minister Yuri Trutnev, part of the Russian delegation, said in a statement.
But RUSAL denied involvement in the project.
"South Africa is one of the countries potentially interesting for our business development, but today we have no concrete projects in that country," a company spokeswoman said.
South African government officials could not be immediately reached for comment.
RUSAL, the world's No.3 aluminium producer, is in the process of merging into the world's top producer of the metal with smaller local rival SUAL and assets belonging to commodities trader Glencore. Last September, Trutnev, during a visit to South Africa, said RUSAL may agree to build an aluminium smelter in South Africa -- a move, according to local officials, could force Canada's Alcan (AL.TO: Quote, Profile , Research) to commit to a long-delayed $2 billion investment in a smelter project.
RUSAL at the time denied any knowledge of such a plan.
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