DUBAI/RIYADH: Rio Tinto Alcan said yesterday it will review a $10.6 billion aluminum joint venture with Saudi firm Maaden, and sources close to the project said it could be delayed by 1-2 years. “We are looking at the technical and financial feasibility of all our projects, this is not unique to Maaden,” Dick Evans told Reuters at an industry conference in Dubai.
“The current global financial markets merit a pause to re-look at the long term planning for these projects to see how we can optimize them,” Evans said.
A source working on the 740,000-ton-per-year smelter project said before Evans made his remarks that Maaden would still push it through with or without its partner should Rio decide to drop it. A Maaden executive could not confirm if Rio Tinto is considering abandoning the plan and Piers Taylor, a Maaden spokesman, could not immediately comment.
An Alkhobar-based executive overseeing Maaden’s aluminum project told Reuters on condition of anonymity that the project could be delayed by up to two years now that market conditions have changed.
“The board will decide within three weeks or before the end of this year at the latest if we should go for a one-year delay or two years,” he said.
