Iceland Municipality Votes Against Alcan

   The no vote this weekend by 50.3 percent of the residents in Hafnarfjordur, a municipality of 25,000 people just south of Iceland's capital, Reykjavik, carries broad implications for both Iceland's economy and for Alcan, the world's second-largest aluminum maker, which has signaled it might leave the plant.

    The vote result also raised questions over the fate of other Icelandic smelters and projects, including those of Alcoa Inc., which is headquartered in New York but has major operations in Pittsburgh, and Century Aluminum Co. of Monterey, California.

    Century spokesman Mike Dildine said the company is progressing with its planned expansion of its Nordural smelter in Iceland's south west.

    It isn't yet certain whether Alcan can appeal the vote or whether it has to modify and resubmit its plans in an attempt to secure local resident approval. Last week, officials at the Isal smelter suggested the company would consider withdrawing from the country if the expansion didn't go ahead.

    Opposition to the expansion centered on a plan to reroute a road rather than to the smelter per se, according to an Alcan spokeswoman in Montreal. This was part of a local urbanization plan, Anik Michaud told Dow Jones Newswires.

   Iceland is an attractive location for aluminum smelting plants because of cheap electricity from hydropower plants.

   Alcoa spokesman Kevin Lowery said Monday it is unfazed by the referendum and that it has "good support'"' for its own two projects from the local community there.

    Lowery said the first of Alcoa's two projects in Iceland, the Fjardaal smelter, would be up and running in the next few weeks.

     Alcoa is exploring the possibility of a new smelter at Husavik in Bakki, northern Iceland. The project could conceivably be the world's first smelter powered by geothermal energy, Lowery said.

Copyright and Exemption Declaration :¢ÙAll articles, pictures and videos that are marked with "China Aluminum Network" on this website are copyright and belong to China Aluminium Network (www.alu.com.cn). When transshipment, any media, website or individual must list the source from "China Aluminium Network (www.alu.com.cn)". We seek legal actions against anyone that disobey this. ¢ÚArticles that marked as copy from others are for transferring more information to readers, do not represent or endorse their opinions or accuracy and reliability. When other media, website or individuals copy from our website, must keep the source. Anyone that changes the articles' sources will hold the responsibilities for copyright and law problems. We also seek legal actions against anyone that disobey this. ¢ÛIf any articles copied by our website concern the copyright and other problems, please contact us within one week.