Valco closes potline; 1400 Jobs to go?

HOUSTON, -- Volta Aluminium Company Limited (Valco), which is majority owned by Kaiser Aluminum Corp. said on Tuesday it closed down one of its four operating pot lines at its capacity smelter in Ghana.

Valco said the move, which is effective as of March 3, was brought after the government of Ghana reduced the power allocation to the smelter facility.

Valco expects to operate three of the facility's five potlines, although the company cannot provide assurance that it will continue to receive sufficient power to operate at this rate for the rest of the year, Valco said in a statement.

The news comes after Valco said on Friday that the government of Ghana had given it extra time to shut down two of its four potlines at its 200,000-tonne per year capacity smelter.

The company had contested a government order in mid-February to close the pot lines within 48 hours to avert a power crisis, saying a rushed shutdown would damage the pot lines and cause many of its 1,400 employees to be laid off.

Pots are electrolytic cells arranged in lines which reduce alumina, an intermediate raw material derived from bauxite, to aluminium metal.

Valco had said it needed at least 30 days to shut down properly to prevent molten aluminium solidifying and damaging the installations.

``Valco has met with the Government of Ghana and the Volta River Authority (VRA) and anticipate ... discussions will continue in respect of the current and future power situation,'' the company said in a statement.