Alcan Celebrates 100 Kilometres of Success

GARDANNE, France, August 28 /PRNewswire/ --

- Over 100 Kilometres of the Company's Innovative Alumina Handling Technology Now in Use Around the World

Alcan celebrated today the installation of the 100th kilometre of its unique alumina handling technology, HyperDense Phase System (HDPS), at the Sohar Aluminium Smelter in the Sultanate of Oman.

"This ground-breaking air-injection alumina handling technology is now leading the market for aluminum smelters around the globe," said Jean-Michel Philbert, General Manager of Alcan Engineering in Gardanne. "Thanks to this reliable technology, alumina-feeding breakdown is virtually eliminated, which leads to improved efficiency and significant reduction in greenhouse gas emissions," he concluded.

HDPS, which is based on the fluidisation principle, is a technology used to feed aluminum smelting cells with alumina. Alumina is normally dense and difficult to handle; however, it flows very easily as a result of the air injection used during the HDPS process.

"HDPS, which is patented by Alcan, is acknowledged as a benchmark for the aluminum industry, successfully feeding more than 5,300 aluminum smelting cells around the world," said David Holmyard, Managing Director of Alcan Engineering, Brisbane, Australia.

Mr. Holmyard presented the '100th kilometre' trophy to Tony Kinsman, CEO of the Sohar Aluminium Company, during a ceremony in Muscat, Sultanate of Oman. Representatives from Sohar Aluminium shareholders - Oman Oil Company (OOC), Abu Dhabi Water and Electricity Authority (ADWEA) and Alcan - as well as Bechtel (the smelter's engineering, procurement, construction, and project management contractor) were present as well as other local personalities.

In February 2005, Alcan, OOC and ADWEA signed the Sohar Aluminium Company shareholder agreement for construction of the US$2.4 billion Sohar smelter and power facility. Alcan has taken a 20 percent stake and a management and operational assistance role in this 350 thousand tonne per year smelter that will utilize the Company's proprietary AP35 smelting technology. The smelter will be the most technologically advanced smelter in the world and is expected to operate in the lowest quartile of the global cost curve. It is expected to begin production in the third quarter of 2008.

Alcan, through its Alcan Engineering and Alesa businesses, designs and implements projects related to the bauxite refining process and alumina handling.

Alcan Inc. (NYSE: AL, TSX: AL) is a leading global materials company, delivering high quality products, engineered solutions and services worldwide. With world-class technology and operations in bauxite mining, alumina processing, primary metal smelting, power generation, aluminum fabrication, engineered solutions as well as flexible and specialty packaging today's Alcan is well positioned to meet and exceed its customers' needs. Alcan is represented by 68,000 employees, including its joint ventures, in 61 countries and regions, posted revenues of US$23.6 billion in 2006. The Company has featured on the Dow Jones Sustainability World Index. For more information, please visit: www.alcan.com.

%B NM %C 1,2,14,20 %D Alumina Sohar

ALCAN ENGINEERING

ALCAN ENGINEERING (ALCENG), based in Brisbane, Australia and Gardanne, France, is the engineering division of the Alcan Bauxite & Alumina group.

The ALCENG Gardanne office is located next to the Alcan Gardanne Alumina Refinery along with the World Operations Technical Assistance Team and the European R&D centre for metallurgical and speciality alumina.

What we do

ALCENG designs and implements projects related to the bauxite refining process and alumina handling.

ALCENG are specialists in:

- Bauxite refining technology

- Process plant and minerals processing plant engineering

- Bulk materials handling (including equipment and process optimisation)

- Tailings management incorporating dense slurry pumping and dry residue stacking

- Maintenance and Reliability

- Instrumentation and sophisticated controls

In addition, the ALCENG Gardanne office specialises in:

- Dust free pneumatic and fluidised materials handing (ALCENG is a world leader in HDPS technology)

Our main markets

- Metallurgical and speciality aluminas

- Handling and logistics for bauxite, bulk alumina and dusty products. Experts in fluidisation techniques

- Mineral industries

- Process industries

- Uranium chemistry

ALCENG customers are located in France, Australia, Greece, Iceland, Venezuela, Argentina, the Sultanate of Oman, Saudi Arabia and India among others.

ALCENG Gardanne references

- Expansion of the Nalco Damandjodi plant and the Nalco Angul Smelter: technology transfer and proprietary equipment delivery.

- Expansion of the CVG Bauxilum Alumina Refinery Venezuela: contract with Technip as a partner.

- Expansion of the Mytilineos Alumina Refinery- AOG (Greece): technology transfer.

- In August 2007, delivery of the 100th km of HDPS conveyor at the Sohar Aluminium Refinery (Oman).

- Alumina handling equipment sale to Alouette (Canada), Alba (Bahrain), Alcoa (Iceland) and Aluar (Argentina).

- New HF zone and enriched uranium conversion lines revamping in FBFC Roman (France).

Key figures

ALCENG Gardanne: 55 full-time engineers/technicians, with more than 25 years experience in technology transfer.

ALCENG Australia (Brisbane, Gladstone and Gove): a network of more than 300 professionals with 10 years of engineering design experience.

Alcan Inc. (NYSE: AL, TSX: AL) is a leading global materials company, delivering high quality products and services worldwide. With world-class technology and operations in bauxite mining, alumina processing, primary metal smelting, power generation, aluminum fabrication, engineered solutions as well as flexible and specialty packaging today's Alcan is well positioned to meet and exceed its customers' needs. Alcan is represented by 68,000 employees, including its joint-ventures, in 61 countries and regions, and posted revenues of US$23.6 billion in 2006. The Company has featured on the Dow Jones Sustainability World Index consecutively since 2003. For more information, please visit: http://www.alcan.com.

Managers

David Holmyard, ALCENG Managing Director, Brisbane

Jean-Michel Philbert, ALCENG Gardanne General Manager