Rio Tinto , the world's largest miner and Cahya Mata Sarawak have scrapped plans for a $2 billion aluminium smelter project in Malaysia's Borneo island as power supply terms could not be finalised, CMS said in on Tuesday.
CMS, a financial and construction conglomerate based in Malaysia's Borneo state of Sarawak, said both companies had worked to set up an aluminium smelter for years but could not agree on the commercial power supply terms with Sarawak Energy Berhad.
"As a result, Rio Tinto Aluminium (Malaysia) and CMS have agreed that they would cease to pursue plans to jointly develop an aluminium smelter at Samalaju in Sarawak but remain open to other future possible collaborations," CMS Group Managing Director Richard Curtis said in a statement.
The aluminium smelter was supposed to have an annual capacity of 1.5 million tonnes to meet surging demand from China and other developing economies.