A delegation from China's Datang Company Limited on Friday visited the Volta Aluminuim Company (Valco) plant here to commence negotiations towards the construction of a 1,200 megawatts power plant for the aluminuim smelter.

The eight-member delegation, was conducted round the plant by Dr Charles Mensa, Chief Executive Officer of VALCO.

China Datang Company Limited is one of the foreign strategic partners that Valco has contracted to assist it realise Ghana's integrated aluminium industrialisation goals.

The 1,200 megawatts plant, to be powered by coal is estimated to cost about 1.2 billion dollars.

Strategic Partners from China, India, Norway and Brazil are also helping Valco to put up the plant.

During an encounter with the media after the tour, Dr Mensa said the first phase of the power plant project, estimated to produce 600 megawatts of power would start in October this year.

He said the whole project would take 24 months to complete adding that since all the five potlines at Valco required only 350 megawatts for full production, the surplus power will be fed into the national grid.

The second phase, Dr Mensa said is expected to produce additional 600 megawatts to feed the bauxite mines and the alumina refinery at Nyinahin and Kyebi.

The excess power would be exported to Togo, Benin and Burkina Faso.

Dr Mensa said the construction of the power plant for Valco will mark the commencement of the realisation of the integrated aluminium industry and the country's industrialisation process.

He therefore called on Ghanaians to support Valco in that endeavour.

The plant will be built on a 200-acre land near the aluminium smelter.

Nii Adjei Kraku II, Tema Mantse, congratulated management of Valco for its unrelenting efforts to revive the company which had to shut down due to unavailability of power as a result of low level of water in the Volta lake.

He pledged the full support of the Tema Traditional Council for the success of the project.

Source: G. Blay Gibbah, Tema - The Ghanaian Times