The results of a major investigation into the business of Aughinish Alumina, published today, provide worrying evidence about how alumina produced in Co Limerick is entering the Russian military supply chain. The investigation, undertaken by the Irish Times with the Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP), a network of journalists, finds that Russian smelters supplied by the Limerick plant are selling vast amounts of aluminium to a trading company that supplies dozens of Russian arms manufacturers.
The supply chain starts when bauxite from Africa and South America arrives on the Shannon estuary for processing into alumina. The Aughinish plant is owned by Rusal, a Russian company, which also owns smelters in Siberia to which much of the output from the Co Limerick plant is exported. A big customer of these smelters is a Moscow trading company that has links with Rusal and is an important player in the Russian arms industry. It supplies weapons manufacturers with aluminium for use in tanks, cruise missiles and military aircraft central to Russia’s war effort in Ukraine.
Alumina, as a basic commodity, is not subject to EU sanctions and the company – and the Government – point out that it has wide uses in civilian projects. Nor is it possible to prove definitively that the output of the Co Limerick plant is used in arms production. But industry experts point out that aluminium producers such as the big Russian smelters would not typically use alumina from specific suppliers in different ways.
Ireland has engaged in intense international lobbying for Aughinish on a number of occasions. When Rusal’s major shareholder, Oleg Deripaska, was sanctioned by Washington in 2018 for alleged interference in the 2016 US presidential election, Irish officials successfully lobbied for the Co Limerick plant to be excluded. This was agreed on the basis that Deripaska reduced his stake in the plant, though he still remains its largest shareholder. The Irish government also lobbied for the company again in 2022, following the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine.
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The recent history of international economic sanctions shows their effectiveness is often limited by countries and companies lobbying for their own interests. Products with both a civilian and military use offer particular challenges. And Irish governments have understandably wanted to protect jobs. But the big increase in alumina exports from Ireland to Russia in recent years and the chain uncovered by the investigation indicates an intolerably high risk that alumina made in Limerick is being used to fuel the Russia arms industry – and thus the war in Ukraine.
This sits uncomfortably with the Government’s ongoing and justified opposition to Russia’s war of aggression in Ukraine.
