Michel Jaques, the director of Alcan’s aluminum department, and Rannveig Rist, the CEO of Alcan in Iceland, have considered three locations for a new smelter in Iceland, but only one seems viable.
“We want to sort out these issues by the end of the year,” Jaques said in an interview with Bladid. Jaques discussed the three options with the reporter.
Thorlákshöfn in south Iceland has already reached an agreement with the Icelandic aluminum company Arctus ehf., which rules out Alcan.
An expansion on a landfill in Straumsvík inlet near Hafnarfjördur, where Alcan’s current smelter is located, seems far-fetched and too costly. “But we told the mayor that we would look into that option,” Jaques said.
Jaques said he liked the idea of a smelter on Keilisnes, a spit of land near the town Vogar on Reykjanes peninsula, the best. “It is certainly good to hear that the inhabitants are prepared to talk to us.”
Rist and Jaques said Alcan aims to operate two smelters in Iceland and that the smelter in Straumsvík would be modernized and remain there for the next 20 years.
