Rio Alcan invests in Iceland smelter

Rio Tinto Ltd says its Alcan arm will invest $US140 million ($A144.9 million) at its
aluminium smelter in Iceland to build a casting facility to produce billets, or
bars.
The investment would reinforce Rio Tinto Alcan's market position in northern Europe
and demonstrated its long-term commitment to being a stable supplier of high-quality
billets, the mining giant said in a statement on Friday.
Billet production is expected to commence in 2012.
The smelter is expected to start increasing production in April 2012 and complete
the production increase by July 2014.
"Expanding production capacity and investing in a new casting facility .. is part of
our strategy of developing our top-tier assets," Rio Tinto Alcan chief executive
Jacynthe Cote said in a statement.
"The investment will help us continue to deliver reliable and high-quality products
to our customers."
Rio Tinto said the investment brought its spend in the smelter in recent weeks to
$US487 million ($A504.04 million).
It also said it would consolidate the expertise and production for the slab products
from the Icelandic smelter to existing operations in France and the UK.
Rio Tinto took over Alcan for $US38.1 billion ($A39.43 billion) in 2007 near the
height of the commodity boom.
It has since as been selling non-core parts of the Alcan business after Rio Tinto
racked up high levels of debt from the takeover.