Alcoa Inc., the largest US aluminum producer, has started construction of an aluminum refinery in Saudi Arabia, the Bloomberg newspaper said on Thursday. The project was marked on Wednesday by an official groundbreaking at the refinery site and the pouring of the first concrete foundation at the aluminum rolling mill in Ras Al-Khair, the paper said, quoting from an official statement. The $10.8 billion project at Ras Al-Khair on Saudi Arabia's east coast is a joint venture between Alcoa and the Saudi Arabian Mining Co., known as Ma'aden. Bloomberg said the complex will mine bauxite and refine the ore into alumina, which will be processed at a 740,000 metric- ton-a-year smelter. The 380,000-ton rolling mill will initially make aluminum sheet for cans, and in the future may produce metal for building products or car parts, the paper said, quoting Kenneth Wisnoski, who heads Alcoa's division that encompasses growth, energy, bauxite and Africa. From Saudi Arabia, the joint venture will expand its target to the other parts of the Middle East region, Wisnoski told Bloomberg. Ma'aden owns 75 percent of the venture and New York-based Alcoa owns 25 percent, the paper said, quoting Mike Belwood, a spokesman for Alcoa. Alcoa provides technical expertise for the refinery, smelter and mill and Saudi Arabia is building infrastructure for the project including a port, rail line and power plant, Belwood said. The rolling mill and smelter will begin production in 2013 and the mine and refinery will start in 2014.
