Bosnia’s aluminium smelter Aluminij Mostar attracts EGA after Glencore

Bosnia’s regional energy and mining minister said on July 4 that Emirates Global Aluminium (EGA) was reportedly showing interest in Bosnia’s debt-laden aluminium smelter Aluminij Mostar.

Aluminij has been in trouble over years now as debt accumulated because of high alumina and electricity prices.

Nermin Dzindic, the Federation energy and mining minster, said EGA would assess Aluminij’s value first before starting talks with the latter’s shareholders about a possible takeover. Aluminij’s 44 per cent of share is owned by the Federation Government while the remainder by the Croatian government.

Dzindic also said that EGA pledged to double the output at Aluminij which is currently at13,000 tonnes a year. EGA was ready to negotiate the power purchase deal with Bosnia’s three power utilities as well.

As per the report, the government would resume talks tomorrow with a consortium led by London-listed miner and commodity trader Glencore, which had also shown interest in Aluminij and was ready to improve its previous offer.

“We are trying to do our best to keep Aluminij afloat,” said Dzindic.

On the closure of Aluminij, around 10,000 jobs will be at risk, including contractors and aluminium processing firms to which Aluminij supplies the metal.

Aluminij’s total debt amounts to nearly 380 million Bosnian marka, of which 280 million marka is to the state power utility.