Facts on the project

The Aluminum project in Greenland consists of an aluminum smelter, two hydro power plants producing electricity and related infrastructure. This includes transmission lines from the hydro power plants to the smelter as well as a harbor at the smelter.

 
Maniitsoq island. The green area is Maniitsoq city, the red area is the planned new neighbourhood, while the blue area is the planned placing of the aluminum plant. (Illustration: Qeqqata Kommunea, (local municipality))

It is a production facility producing aluminum. The raw material for this, alumina, will be transported by ship to Greenland from alumina refineries elsewhere in the world where alumina is produced from bauxite, a rock/type of soil containing aluminiumoxide. 

The two hydro power plants of the project will both utilize natural reservoirs (lakes) with a good head in terms of the distance between the level of the lakes and the level of the actual hydro power plant. Both lakes are in appx. 6-700m. Since existing reservoirs in the form of lakes will be used the dams needed will be smaller than elsewhere. Large dams are constructed at other potentials around the world in order to utilize the resource. The actual power plants will both be located inside the mountainside, as is already known from the hydro power plant at Buksefjorden, south of Nuuk, and from the hydro power plant at Sisimiut, where the only visible buildings are the entry and service building.

 
Hydro power plant at Nuuk. (Pic: Nukissiorfiit)

The smelter necessitates a large workforce besides the secondary businesses needed to support the industry in operation. Thus such a large production facility also creates new jobs with local firms that in some form or the other becomes a service provider to the smelter be it as catering, cleaning or other services. This in turn necessitates an expansion of the town of Maniitsoq with new townships for housing and industrial areas.