bauxite smelter energy supply, page-91

Hi Duke,
I have a couple of misgivings about an aluminium smelter in this case.
China is running out of good quality , cheap bauxite to make alumina to put thru its existing plants in China.
Making aluminium in Laos doesn't fix that problem.
Power , cost and availability, more of an issue with aluminium.
But transport of anything other than finished aluminium doesn't seem viable.
For this project to be viable,
there has to be something we are missing, or the info is not available to us.
Something that either
1. makes transport cheaper
2.makes power cheap and available

Need to look at the regional politics on dam building.
N-terra's kindly supplied link on the Mekong River Commission article, brings into focus , if we didn't already know it, the political and environmental complexities of hydro in this area.

Oscar, nice schematic.
If anybody didn't already know the processes outlined though, they really did invest in ORD with a remarkable degree of ignorance.



Really quite a fascinating exercise.
Must admit I'd love to be able to work out solutions to the contradictions before the company announces them.

cheers