Icelanders to Alcan: Not In Our Backyard

      STOCKHOLM,April 4, 2007 (AP)- Residents of a small Icelandic municipality have voted against a planned $1.2 billion U.S. aluminum smelter plant expansion by Canadian aluminum maker Alcan Inc.

The Montreal-based company said it is reviewing the results of the vote.

The residents in Hafnarfjordur, a municipality of 25,000 people just south of Reykjavik, voted 50.3% against the proposed expansion.

The ISAL smelter employs 450 people, and has a current capacity of 180,000 tonnes per year. The planned expansion more than doubles capacity to 460,000 tonnes per year.

'    BEGINNING OF THE END'

"If the expansion won't go through, we see that as the beginning of the end of the plant," Alcan Iceland plant information director Hrannar Petursson said.

"Alcan has noted the results of the public consultation, and will now carefully review all available options," said Michel Jacques, president and CEO, Alcan Primary Metal Group, in a statement.

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, Calif.

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

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

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