venture headquarters holyhead wales key people managing director brian king organisational support manager colin webb business support manager steven duggan products aluminium owner rio tinto group and kaiser aluminium number of employees 540 website http www.riotintoalcan.com eng media media releases 1752 . asp anglesey aluminium metal ltd which shut down on 30 september 2009 was a joint venture between the rio tinto group and kaiser aluminum . its aluminium smelter located on the outskirts of holyhead was one of the largest employers in north wales with 540 staff members and began to produce aluminium in 1971 . until recently it produced up to 142 000 tonnes of aluminium every year and was the biggest single user of electricity 255 mw in the united kingdom . 1 2 alumina and coke shipped from jamaica and australia would berth at the company s private jetty in holyhead harbour . this jetty is linked by a series of conveyor belts passing through tunnels to the plant . a spur rail link from the main holyhead to london rail line runs into the plant and was used for both receipt of raw materials and despatch of aluminium . the plant was powered from the national grid and received most of its electricity from wylfa nuclear power station 15 miles away . aa was used as a base load for wylfa and saved the grid the cost of keeping a power station on standby . the power contract terminated in 2009 and the aluminium smelting operation was shut down as no new contract was negotiated . 3 the company has announced tentative plans for a biomass plant on the site but smelting operations have been halted and the plant mothballed until 2016 . 4 near the smelter the aluminium powder company alpoco produces aluminium powder which is used in pastes pigments chemicals metallurgy refractory propulsion pyrotechnics spray deposition and powder metallurgy . see also edit alcan lynemouth aluminium smelter list of aluminium smelters references edit quiz of the week s news . bbc news . 2008 05 30 . retrieved 2008 06 01 . aam who we are . anglesey aluminium metal ltd. archived from the original on april 1 2004 . retrieved 2004 04 01 . david robertson and carl mortished january 16 2009 . the end for uk s biggest energy user as rio tinto shuts anglesey aluminium smelter . london the times . retrieved 2009 02 07 . firm s biomass plant plan on show . bbc news . 2009 06 16 . retrieved 2010 01 01 . external links edit rio tinto a.l.p.o.c.o. aerial image of anglesey aluminium plant www.pixaerial.co.uk coordinates 53 17 47 n 4 35 48 w 53.29634 n 4.596555 w 53.29634 ; 4.596555 retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title anglesey aluminium & oldid 744251797 categories companies of walesaluminium companiesaluminium smeltersholyheadnon ferrous metallurgical works in the united kingdomrio tinto subsidiariesjoint ventureskaiser aluminumhidden categories pages using infobox company with unsupported parameterscoordinates not on wikidata navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version languages add links this page was last modified on 14 october 2016 at 02 31 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; additional terms may apply . by using this site you agree to the terms of use and privacy policy . wikipedia is a registered trademark of the wikimedia foundation inc. a non profit organization . privacy policy about wikipedia disclaimers contact wikipedia developers cookie statement mobile view