Brazilian environmental authorities give Hydro the go-ahead

Hydro has been in crisis for more than six years in Brazil. After heavy rains in mid-February, the company was forced to halve production at the world's largest aluminum refinery, Alunorte.

The reason for this closure was that the old red blood dump was full and could no longer be used. At the same time, it was forbidden for Hydro to use the new and modern red mud discharge, DRS2, and a modern drying technology called pressure filter.

Thursday, the federal government of the Brazilian environment, IBAMA, decided to lift the ban, according to a stock market announcement Thursday.

Hydro has always banned the use of the facility by a Brazilian federal court, but the decision of the authorities responsible for the environment is one step closer to the reopening of the plant.

"This is a development in the right direction for Alunorte, which brings us closer to our original plan to replace the old DRSI repository with pressure filters and DRS2, based on modern technology," said John Thuestad, head of commercial sector Bauksitt and Alumina at Hydro.

According to the announcement of the stock market, it is uncertain that production can reach full capacity. When Hydro released its quarterly results Wednesday morning, the company thought that they could start operating in early April next year.

Hydro was shocked in early October by announcing the closure of the Alunorte plant because it was not allowed to use the landfills. A few days later, the hydroelectric plant reopened to half of its production.

The reason is that the company has been allowed to use a new pressure filter technology. Thursday's decision to open up the use of the new landfill follows this decision, according to the stock market announcement.

"In the longer term, the new press deposition and filtering technology is the only sustainable solution for Alnorte," Thuestad said in an announcement.(Conditions)Copyright Dagens Næringsliv AS and / or our suppliers. We would like you to share our business using a link directly to our pages. The copy or any other form of use of all or part of the content may only be done by written authorization or as permitted by law. For other terms please see here.