The contract also includes an option for the building of a new anode plant and reconstruction of the building site. This option will add an extra NOK 130 million to the main contract sum.
It was on 16 August last year that the Board of Norsk Hydro approved the modernization plans at Sunndalsøra, on the basis that the main study to be completed during the second quarter of this year shows no negative deviations of great importance. The agreement with AF Sunndal is provisionally a Letter of Intent.
The plan is to shut down the old Søderberg plant from the 1950s, and build new potlines that will bring total primary production capacity at Hydro Aluminium Sunndal up to about 321,000 tonnes per year. After modernization and expansion, Hydro Aluminium Sunndal will be the largest aluminium plant in Europe. Development at Sunndalsøra will occur in such a manner that no production capacity will be lost during the building period.
The contract comprises buildings for the two new potrooms, crane workshop, operator centre, a building for the rectifier and 24 kV distribution plant, installations for the intake of sea water and the laying of a sea water cable to the four new gas scrubbing facilities, the building of a new pumping station for sea water and the foundations for the gas scrubbing facilities, the installation of ventilation pipes to the gas scrubbing facilities, the extension and rebuilding of anode service facilities and the demolition of the old Søderberg facilities - SU I and SU II.
A more detailed description of the project has been issued locally and is to be found on our website www.hydro.com.