The US$460-million Tan Rai alumina plant in Lam Dong Province will be put into operation on November 1 instead of this month as previously announced, the Tan Rai bauxite project management board has said.

>> Vietnam's first alumina plant to operate in October

The delay, because of unsatisfactory preparation, was announced at yesterday’s meeting between the board, the Vietnam Coal and Mineral Group (Vinacomin), and Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade Le Duong Quang.

At the meeting, Phan Boi Loi, director of the board, said that nearly all the work items of the plant have been completed, but a number of them have yet to meet requirements in terms of technique and stability.

For example, the thermal power house has failed to run at a capacity of 30 MW, while some other times have yet to operate stably, Loi said.

When discussing about the plant’s safety, the deputy minister urged Vinacomin to prepare a plan to timely cope with any incidents that might occur to the plant’s red mud reservoir.

As previously reported, Tran Duong Le, the board’s deputy director, said in a September meeting that the plant has almost been completed and the facility would be put into operation in October 2012.

The contractor of the plant is China Aluminum International Engineering Co. (Chalieco), a subsidiary of state-owned Aluminum Corp of China, or Chinalco.

Vinacomin, which owns the plant, has forecast Tan Rai's alumina output at 300,000 tons this year, increasing to 500,000 tons in 2013 and 650,000 tons in 2014.

Alumina is a white granular material, a little finer than table salt, and is properly called aluminum oxide, which is used to produce aluminum.

Vinacomin and China's Yunnan Metallurgical Group have entered into a memorandum of understanding, under which the former has agreed to sell 600,000-900,000 tons of alumina a year to the latter to feed its smelter, Yunnan Aluminum Industry Co. Ltd.