Can Kitimat escape cutbacks at Rio Tinto Alcan?

Rio Tinto, one of the world’s largest producers of aluminum has announced a number of high profile closures, shutdowns and cutbacks worldwide this week, a reflection of the troubled times across the globe in the resource based industries particularly in the world of minerals. Rio Tinto Alcan is not alone in its troubles, Alcoa recently announced huge layoffs to its operations as the situation worsened in the resource sector.

This week the axe fell in Quebec, where the company closed a smelter and reduced output of another processing operation while at the same time letting go a number of employees employed in that province, those closures have sent some shock waves through other Quebec communities that host Alcan operations in the province .

As the bad news rolled across the time zones from the South Pacific to Brazil , through Quebec and on to BC, residents of Kitimat wondered if they too would be sharing in the Alcan pain through further cuts from the Rio Tinto head offices…

(from  the blog a town called podunk, click on the link below to see the entire article atowncalledpodunk.blogspot.com/2 … 9748155836 )-