Reprinted from Caribbean Net News
caribbeannetnews.com

Trinidad seeking alternative sites for smelter

Wednesday, December 27, 2006

by: Dale Crofts

CHICAGO, USA (Bloomberg): Alcoa Inc. has said that Trinidad's government approached it about building an aluminum smelter in an alternative location to that planned on the island's Cap-de-Ville, denying a report that the project was cancelled.

Alcoa, the world's biggest aluminum producer, will hold discussions with Trinidad's government about two potential new sites for the smelter, spokesman Kevin Lowery said by phone Tuesday. He denied an Associated Press report that Trinidad had scuttled the project.

Trinidad has decided to "immediately discontinue" plans to allow New York-based Alcoa to build the $1.5 billion smelter in Cap-de-Ville after fisherman complained the smelter would poison their water supply for "generations," the Associated Press said earlier this week, citing Prime Minister Patrick Manning in the Trinidad and Tobago's Newsday newspaper.

Alcoa had signed a preliminary deal with the government to own and operate the smelter for 30 years, the AP said. The plant would produce as much as 375,000 tons of aluminum a year and employ 800 workers, the agency said.

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