KINGSTON, Jamaica — Leading global aluminium producer, UC RUSAL says it has completed its transaction to obtain the remaining seven per cent of the property rights of West Indies Alumina Company (WINDALCO).

As a result, RUSAL now owns 100% of the complex, the Russian-based company said in a release Friday, December 12.

The relevant agreement was reached and signed between UC RUSAL and the Government of Jamaica in May 2014 as part of company’s asset consolidation programme. The assignment of the seven per cent stake was completed to partially satisfy the Jamaican government’s debt obligations to RUSAL.

“This agreement to fully consolidate the bauxite and alumina complex is in line with RUSAL’s strategy to provide its plants with in-house raw materials. WINDALCO is an important raw material supplier of RUSAL’s smelters. As part of RUSAL’s on-going modernization programme we are planning to upgrade the complex at WINDALCO to increase efficiency, cut production costs and improve alumina quality,” Yakov Itskov, the head of RUSAL’s Alumina division said.

Since 2007, RUSAL has owned 93 per cent of WINDALCO. The company comprises two alumina refineries (Ewarton Works in St Catherine and Kirkvine Works in Manchester), bauxite mines, a shipping port as well as farms in Manchester and St Ann. The company has more than 600 employees, the release said.