Russian aluminium giant Rusal plans to establish a joint venture in Ghana to mine and process bauxite, the raw material used to produce aluminium, Reuters reported on Thursday 29 October. The report cited Russia's RIA state news agency and a memorandum signed on Thursday. The agreement was signed with Ghana's state agency responsible for developing the country's aluminium industry, on the sidelines of the Russia-Africa Economic and Humanitarian Forum in Moscow.

Production targets set out

Rusal chief executive Evgeny Nikitin told RIA that the company was targeting annual bauxite production of five million metric tons in Ghana, with annual processing capacity of 1.2 million tons, Reuters reported. Bauxite is refined into alumina and then smelted into aluminium, a metal used widely in transport, construction and packaging.

Rusal's existing African footprint

The figures are targets stated by the company chief, not confirmed output, and the reports available so far do not set out financial terms, a timetable for construction, or the location of any mine. The announcement is therefore best read as a memorandum-stage plan rather than a completed project.

Rusal is described by Reuters as the world's largest aluminium producer outside China, and it already has major bauxite operations in Guinea. There it owns and operates the Compagnie des Bauxites de Kindia, develops the Dian-Dian deposit and runs the Friguia complex.

The company operates seven bauxite mines worldwide, including two in Russia, and produced 18.453 million metric tons of bauxite in 2025, with captive production covering 88 per cent of its alumina refineries' requirements, Reuters reported. A Ghana venture would extend that West African presence into a second producing country, if the memorandum leads to a final agreement.

Sources: Reuters and Global Banking and Finance.