Rio Tinto Alcan said that global economic volatility will not affect the completion of its alumina refinery expansion near Gladstone in central Queensland. The Yarwun 2 site will produce more than 3 million tonnes of alumina a year when it is fully operational.

Mr Dave Yeoman GM of Rio Tinto said that it is due to be finished by next August. The expansion project's at 95% complete and it's due to be finished in the middle of August next year."

He said that "It's far too far along now to be affected by what's going on overseas or in Australia. In fact, we're phasing out our construction workforce right now and starting to ramp up the operations staff."

(Sourced from www.abc.net.au)