Liaoning's plan to house alumina refinery worth of $3.4 billion got scrapped

After almost 88 years, Liaoning province in China was about to home an alumina refinery, but unfortunately, the project plan got cancelled by the city of Chaoyang after public consultation.

The refinery was proposed to process bauxite ore into 10 million tonnes of alumina every year and supersede Norsk Hydro’s Alunorte project in Brazil as the world’s biggest alumina refinery.

Liaoning was home to China’s first aluminium smelter, at Fushun; date back to 1930s, after which there was no existence of any alumina production until now, neither at Liaoning nor at its neighbouring provinces like Heilongjiang and Jilin, according to the data revealed by the National Bureau of Statistics.

As per the information published on the website of the Chaoyang government on Wednesday, August 1, 2018, the refinery was scrapped because of differing opinions from city residents on its environmental impact assessment.

The proposed project was earmarked for US$3.4 billion of investment as a joint project between State Power Investment Corp’s (SPIC) aluminium arm, Jinzhou Port Co. and the latter’s subsidiary, Jinguo Investment, according to a Chaoyang government statement on May 8. The government had also intimidated that the refinery would create jobs for 2000 personnel.

When asked more about the cancellation of the project plan through emails, Jinzhou Port and SPIC did not respond immediately.