OREANDA-NEWS. February 17, 2011. UC RUSAL (SEHK: 486, EuroNext: RUSAL/RUAL, MICEX: RUALR, RTS: RUAL), the world’s largest aluminium producer, announces its decision to restart the operations at the Windalco-Kirkvine Works Plant with effect from 1 July 2011. The restart of Windalco-Kirkvine Works Plant is subject to the approval by international lenders and further discussions of the Company with its partners on the project.

The investment cost of the restart of operations at the Windalco-Kirkvine Works Plant from January to December 2011 is expected to be approximately USD9.5 million while the plant commissioning budget is approximately USD17.5 million. The total capacity of the Windalco-Kirkvine Works Plant is approximately 600 thousand tonnes of alumina per year. In 2011, the production of the Windalco-Kirkvine Works Plant is planned to be approximately 252 thousand tonnes of alumina.

The production at the Windalco-Kirkvine Works Plant was temporarily suspended in April 2009 due to cost-cutting measure. During the period in which operations at the Windalco-Kirkvine Works Plant have been suspended, RUSAL undertook a number of measures to ensure that when market conditions were such that they would make the restart of the Windalco-Kirkvine Works Plant economically viable, the operations would be restored in more effective and competitive manner. The Company has carefully reviewed ways of optimizing the facility’s structure and production process, reducing cash operating costs and improving the efficiency of the Windalco-Kirkvine Works Plant’s operations. It is expected that the restart of the Windalco-Kirkvine Works Plant will increase the efficiency of the infrastructure in Windalco (including port and railway) which is only partially utilized for the Ewarton Works Plant at present.

Windalco (West Indies Alumina Company) is situated on the island of Jamaica in the Caribbean. It comprises two alumina refineries (Ewarton Works and Kirkvine Works), a shipping port (Port Esquivel) and also bauxite mines in Schwallenburgh (Ewarton) and Russell Place (Kirkvine) and farms in Manchester and St. Ann. The production capacity of the company is 1.2 million tonnes of alumina annually.