[miningmx.com] – ALCOA said it would seek to buy mines used in the manufacture of aluminium from BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto after they this year shelved and sold mines owing to the poor outlook for the metal.
Citing Alcoa Australia managing director, Alan Cransberg, Bloomberg News said aluminium demand would grow about 6.5% annually for the next ten years. “It’s a beautiful number and most in the industry would be happy with that,” Cransberg is quoted to have said.
BHP Billiton sold its 33.3% stake in an alumina project in Guinea for $1 earlier this month and abandoned plans for a smelter in the Democratic Republic of Congo. It also stopped exploration at Guinea’s Boffa-Santou-Houda site, Bloomberg News said.
Rio Tinto has put up for sale 13 aluminum assets, including its Gove operations in Australia, since October last year to improve the group’s financial performance.
Aluminum prices have fallen 3.3% this year after an 18% decline in 2011.
