Cameroon Seeks Investment In Energy To Boost Aluminum Output
Friday July 4th, 2008 / 16h35
YAOUNDE, Cameroon -(Dow Jones)- Cameroon's state-owned aluminum company is attracting investment in the country's energy sector to help boost output of the metal, an official at government-run Electricity Development Corporation, or EDC, said Friday. EDC General Manager Celestin Ndonga told Dow Jones Newswires that because aluminum production is power-intensive, Cameroon's Société Camerounaise d'Aluminium, or Alucam, is trying to address the country's energy shortage. Alucam currently produces 90,000 metric tons of aluminum annually, according to government data. Its target is production of 300,000 tons, Nonga said, with Alucam already consuming some 33% of Cameroon's electricity supply. International mining companies have already started to look at Cameroon as a possible future location for projects. In June, U.K.-listed miner Rio Tinto PLC (RTP) signed an XAF120 billion ($297 million) agreement for the construction of a gigantic hydroelectric power dam in eastern Cameroon, as a joint venture with the EDC. The Lom Pangar dam project is scheduled to start in January 2009 and will be completed by 2012. The World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, the Islamic Bank and the African Development Bank are contributing to the project. The new dam is expected to boost Cameroon's annual electricity supply from 1,192 megawatts to 10,000 megawatts within 10 years. Rio Tinto already owns a license from the Cameroon government to explore and process the West African nation's bauxite into aluminum at Alucam's processing plant in Edea, some 200 kilometers southwest of the country's capital Yaounde. -By Emmanuel Tumanjong, contributing to Dow Jones Newswires; +237-7773-1930, +237-9463-9879; tnuel@yahoo.com Click here to go to Dow Jones NewsPlus, a web front page of today's most important business and market news, analysis and commentary: http://www.djnewsplus.com/al?rnd=N3pJNd1FyFKKQZIFIr7Pgg%3D%3D. You can use this link on the day this article is published and the following day.
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