Aluminium giant UC Rusal has announced the sale of bauxite/alumina company Alpart Jamaica to Chinese company Jiuquan Iron & Steel (Group) Co Ltd (JISCO).
A release on the Rusal website said the sale is worth US$299 million. Refinery operations at Alpart closed in 2009 in the fallout from the global financial crisis, plummeting metal prices and the high cost of oil.
Rusal and the Jamaican government agreed more than a year ago that refinery operations would resume at the close of 2016. Alpart resumed bauxite mining early last year and there have been exports of raw bauxite from Port Kaiser pending resumption of refining operations.
Negotiations for the sale of Alpart to JISCO have been ongoing since mid to late 2015
I’m so sick of the Jamaican government. Jamaica has wonderful resources and things that could make the country richer and better yet they selling all our country’s asset. Jamaican government too licky licky. I’m tired of foreigners having more control than its citizens.