Deripaska’s plant in Ireland supplies Russia with alumina for weapons production — The Guardian

This is according to The Guardian.

Leaked documents and public data have shown that shipments to Russian smelters from the Irish plant Aughinish Alumina rose sharply following the invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

The publication reports that Ireland exported $243 million worth of alumina to Russia in 2022, and by 2024 this figure had risen by 55% to $376 million.

Aughinish is the only alumina producer in Ireland and the largest producer of the primary raw material for aluminium production in Europe, according to 2021 data.

In 2022, Ireland’s then Minister for Public Expenditure, Patrick O’Donovan, told the country’s parliament that the plant was “in no way connected to the military machine”.

The plant itself has been owned by the Russian aluminium group Rusal since 2006. Rusal’s shipments of alumina between its facilities in Ireland and Russia are legal, as the EU has not imposed sanctions on this commodity.

As The Guardian notes, alumina has wide-ranging military applications, and around a quarter of Rusal’s shares are indirectly owned by Russian metals oligarch Oleg Deripaska, who is subject to sanctions. Rusal also avoided sanctions in the EU and the UK following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

It is known that Rusal’s plant extracts aluminium oxide, also known as alumina, from bauxite sedimentary rock. The alumina is then supplied to several Russian subsidiaries within the wider Rusal group, including a smelter in Krasnoyarsk, where it is converted into aluminium.

An analysis of public records shows that in 2024, Aughinish Alumina exported nearly 500,000 tonnes of alumina worth around $200 million to Krasnoyarsk.