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10 October
Moscow,
Prime-Tass
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MOSCOW, Oct 10 (Prime-Tass) — Russia’s United Company RUSAL, the world’s largest producer of aluminum and alumina, said Wednesday that the U.S. $6 billion-$7 billion cost estimate for its Saratov Region project included both building a smelter and adding generating capacities at the Balakovsky nuclear power plant. On Tuesday, UC RUSAL had said that $6 billion-$7 billion would be needed just to build the smelter alone. Under a cooperation agreement signed Tuesday with the Saratov Region’s government, UC RUSAL will build an aluminum smelter with annual output of 1.04 million tonnes and provide electric power to it by building two power blocks with 2,000 megawatts of capacity at the Balakovsky plant. A representative for UC RUSAL told Prime-Tass on Tuesday that construction of the smelter might start sometime in 2008. UC RUSAL was formed in March through the merger of Russian aluminum majors RUSAL and SUAL and the alumina assets of Swiss commodities trader Glencore. | |||