Alcoa to take 40% share in Vietnamese joint venture

Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung has allowed Vinacomin, the Southeast Asian country’s largest mining firm, to sell U.S.-based Alcoa a 40% stake in a joint venture to produce 600,000 metric tons of alumina a year from the central region. Alumina is the raw material used in aluminum production. Vinacomin was also permitted to hold a 51% stake in the joint venture and offer 9% to other domestic investors. The government will get a 10% royalty on net profit each year once the alumina joint venture is in operation. To help speed up alumina production in the central region, which has an estimated 5.5 billion tons of bauxite ore, the government has also allowed Vinacomin to offer a 20% stake in another alumina joint venture to China’s Yunnan Metallurgy Group. (June 12, 2008)