Alcoa to develop world's lowest-cost aluminum complex in S Arabia news

Alcoa, the largest aluminum company in the US and Saudi Arabia's mining company Ma'aden yesterday agreed to invest $10.8-billion joint venture to develop the world's lowest cost aluminium complex in Saudi Arabia.

Alcoa and its partners will own 40 per cent of the joint venture, while Ma'aden will hold 60 per cent and bring the stalled project back on rails.
The project had stalled in 2008 after Rio Tinto's Canadian aluminum subsidiary; Rio Tinto Alcan, holding a 49-per cent stake had pulled out of the project for lack of financing due to the global credit crisis.
Of its 40 per cent, Alcoa will hold 20 per cent and its partners the rest. Each of Alcoa and the partners will invest $900 million over a four-year period and will be responsible for their pro rata share of the project financing, in addition to specific completion commitments.
The Pittsburgh-based aluminum maker said its share of the project is $2.2 billion.
The joint venture will set up a 1.8 million ton-per-year refinery, a 740,000 ton-per-year smelter, a bauxite mine with an annual capacity of 4 million tons and a rolling mill with a capacity of up to 460,000 tons.
http://www.domain-b.com/industry/Aluminium/20091222_alcoa.html

Scrappers charged with stealing aluminum cable near Joliet

A citizen's tip led Will County sheriff's police to take two would-be scrappers into custody last week for swiping 50 feet of aluminum cable from a ComEd site just outside Joliet, police said.

Brian W. Sniegowski, 38, of the 1800 block of Nicholson Street, Crest Hill, and Gordon N. Neitzel, 46, of the 24700 block of East Street, Plainfield, are charged with misdemeanor theft, police said.

Deputies said they tracked Sniegowski to a metal recycling facility in Joliet as he was transporting cable in Neitzel's sport-utility vehicle. Neitzel, who had been barred from the facility, was waiting at a nearby fast-food restaurant when deputies took him into custody, police said.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/southsouthwest/chi-stolen-cable-blotter-sw-25dec25,0,2765368.story