Alcoa Inc expects to win approval to renew 50 year license to mine brown coal in Australia’s Victoria state to power its Point Henry aluminum smelter.
Mr Brendan Foran Alcoa Australia Community Relations Officer said that “We’re very confident that we can come to an agreement with the state government. Alcoa’s stated intent has been for many, many years that we would exercise that option and the discussions with the government have been around renewing the second 50 year term.”
Mr Foran said that the Point Henry smelter near Geelong in Victoria produces 185,000 metric tonnes of aluminum a year more than 10% of Australia’s aluminum output. The smelter gets about 40% of power needs from the brown coal fired plant.
The Australian Financial Review reported that Alcoa would close the facility if the government doesn’t renew the mine license that expires at the end of the year. Australia’s government wants to set a carbon price from next July ahead of a trading program that may begin as early as 2015.
(Sourced from Bloomberg.net)
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