Artyom Volynets, business development manager for the Russian aluminum company SUAL, told an investment forum in Almaty on December 14 that SUAL plans to build a $1.5 billion smelter in Kazakhstan. Volynets said that if a feasibility study is successful, construction will start in 2008 and production in 2010, with production reaching full capacity of 500,000 tons a year in 2011. Additionally, SUAL has signed a memorandum of understanding with the Kazakh electricity company Nurenergoservice to supply the smelter with power. (RBK)