Rio returns

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Evans has an extensive management background within the industry. The former president, chief executive and director of Alcan has held the chairmanship of the International Aluminium Institute, and is executive director of London-based Rio Tinto plc and Melbourne-based Rio Tinto Ltd.

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Falling aluminium prices have prompted uncertain times for the world's biggest producers. Rio Tinto Alcan chief Dick Evans, however, is confident that the industry will recover as global economies pick up again.

Falling prices may have forced a number of aluminium producers across the globe to suspend output and shelve plans for future projects but Dick Evans, chief executive of Rio Tinto Alcan, one of the biggest aluminium companies in the world, remains bullish about his firm's latest $2.3bn smelter in Oman.

He is in the Gulf to visit the plant in Sohar, which is scheduled to reach its maximum production capacity of 360,000 tonnes per annum by the first quarter of next year.

"I am excited about it," he enthuses. "The plant will have the single most modern potline and the single largest individual potline, so it is new technology that is pushing the envelope. Of course, we would love to expand it down the road, so it could be doubled in size eventually."

It's been a busy 12 months for Evans, who was appointed chief executive of the aluminium giant following Rio Tinto Group's $38.1bn takeover of Alcan Inc. in October 2007 - the biggest ever mining sector acquisition.

Out of the deal came one of the world's two biggest producers, along with Russia's UC Rusal, of aluminium and alumina and bauxite, two raw materials used to make the metal.

Spanning from Queensland in Australia to Porto Trombetas in Brazil and Accra in Ghana, the company owns, operates or has interests in seven bauxite mines and deposits, six alumina refineries, six specialty alumina plants, 26 aluminium smelters and 13 power generating plants, nine of them hydroelectric.

In addition, Rio Tinto Alcan owns 120 production facilities, service centres and international network offices, covering 32 countries through its engineered products business group.

At the helm of the firm is Evans, who knows aluminium better than most, thanks to an extensive management background within the industry. The former president, chief executive and a director of Alcan has held the chairmanship of the International Aluminium Institute (IAI), and this month chaired the mining and metals council at the World Economic Forum in Dubai.

From his base in Montreal, Canada, Evans also holds the post of executive director of London-based Rio Tinto plc and Melbourne-based Rio Tinto Ltd.

The Sohar smelter is already running at 50 percent and will have the potential to double its first stage capacity to 720,000 tonnes within two years once sufficient supplies of gas are in place to power the plant, he says.

Part of a $16bn industrial park, which includes a power plant, fertiliser plant and chemical plant, Evans says the smelter will generate downstream industries and the firm will train a high number of Omanis in production, technical and professional jobs at the plant, under an agreement with the government.

"There is an expectation there will be some downstream, perhaps using molten metal," he says. "It's typical around a plant like that you might see a rod and a cable plant, an extrusion operation and a casting plant, so we would expect some of that to develop."

Equity contributions for the project, which it is providing for Sohar Aluminium, have come from Rio Tinto Alcan's partners', Oman Oil Company and Abu Dhabi Water and Electricity Authority, he says.

According to Evans, a decision by the Abu Dhabi government to "reallocate gas resources" was the reason for the failure of the company's plans with Abu Dhabi Basic Industries Corporation (Adbic) for a large aluminium smelter in the emirate.

But he admits that the company is waiting for a few months to review the capital costs of a $10.6bn aluminium joint venture in Saudi Arabia, with Saudi firm Maaden.

Rio Tinto is assessing the correction in steel prices before proceeding with the project, which would have a capacity of 700,000 to 720,000 tonnes per annum, with the potential to double that in the longer term, Evans says.

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