Media Type: Archive

Almost 150 local residents, outdoor enthusiasts, community volunteers turned out on Sunday morning to celebrate the opening up of part of Glen Nevis for the enjoyment of all for the first time.

Difficult terrain had previously made the riverside path a no-go area for wheelchair users, elderly and frail visitors and families with young children.

But thanks to a £600,000 upgrade of the path and the provision of a new river crossing, all of these groups can now explore the countryside around the renowned Highland beauty spot.

Before inviting traditional musician Robert Robertson to declare the new 1.5 km route open, Alex Farquhar, chairman of The Nevis Partnership, which led the two- year project in conjunction with The Highland Council, told the attendance that partnership was the key to the success of the scheme.

He said: “This new All-ability Path and Bridge is testament to what can be achieved when organisations work in partnership. Of all our 19 projects this one is a facility for all to enjoy. However, it is impossible to bring together a project such as this without the help, funding and goodwill of a great many people and organisations.”

He thanked the Highland Council, the Heritage Lottery Fund, Highlands and Islands Enterprise, Sport Scotland, Active Places, the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development, the Scottish Youth Hostel Association and Alcan Highland Estates for their contribution to the initiative.

The day’s celebrations which included a march over the new bridge by the Lochaber Schools Pipe Band and hours of family activities and entertainment, were sponsored by GFG Estates, part of the GFG Alliance, which recently became the owner of a large part of Glen Nevis when the business bought the Lochaber aluminium smelter, hydro power stations and surrounding estate lands.

Jay Hambro, chief investment officer of the GFG Alliance, said: “We are very proud to have invested in the future of this part of the Highlands and are particularly pleased to work with groups like The Nevis Partnership to promote projects that add real value to the community. We are committed to working with regional agencies and local partners to maximise the economic and recreational use of the estate lands.”

Mr Farquhar told the gathering: “GFG Alliance have been totally supportive in this endeavour. We welcome them to the area and look forward to working with them on other projects in the future.”

Following a period of intensive growth by its industrial, energy and natural resources businesses, Liberty House and SIMEC, Sanjeev Gupta’s GFG Alliance, has now launched a financial services arm, Wyelands Capital, and appointed a former senior UK regulator to help direct the new enterprise.

The creation of Wyelands Capital, follows Mr Gupta’s acquisition in December 2016 of Wyelands Bank PLC, which has been launched as an ‘industry-friendly’ deposit-taking institution focused on providing working capital solutions for UK and international companies.

Among those appointed to the advisory board of Wyelands Capital is Paul Sharma, former deputy head of the Prudential Regulation Authority (“PRA”) and Executive Director of the Bank of England. Mr Sharma is also the Managing Director for regulatory advice at global practice, Alvarez and Marsal.

During its initial phase, Wyelands Capital will deliver structured finance and capital markets expertise to the GFG Alliance with a view to serving wider markets later on.

Also joining the Wyelands Capital advisory board are Roland Fisher, former Banco Santander international senior legal counsel and Suresh Advani, who has previously has held senior positions at the ICC Banking Commission, JP Morgan Chase and Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein. Mr Sharma will serve in an advisory capacity on regulatory matters, while Mr Fisher becomes general legal counsel on the executive management team, and Mr Advani will lead GFG’s investment activity in the area of financial services.

Sanjeev gupta, executive chairman of the GFG Alliance, said: “Wyelands Bank is already filling a very important gap in the market for working capital solutions. Through Wyelands Capital, the GFG Alliance is determined to engage the best and most experienced figures from the financial services sector, in order to establish a powerful presence in the financial services market and make a real difference to the growth prospects of industry in the UK and globally.”

British-based GFG Alliance, which includes global industrial and metals group Liberty House plus the resources and energy group SIMEC, has stepped up its North American expansion programme with a consortium bid to acquire all the assets of Mesabi Metallics Company LLC – formerly known as Essar Steel Minnesota LLC – and ESML Holding Inc.

This includes a 7m tonnes-a-year iron ore pellet plant at Nashwauk Minnesota with an expansion potential to 14m tonnes a year, plus magnetite resources estimated at 1.968 billion tonnes, with reserves of 1.679 billion tonnes, and hematite mineral resources estimated to be around 352 million tonnes.

The bid, which is being made with ERP Iron Ore and institutional investors working together as the Chippewa Capital Partners, would complete construction of the long-awaited iron ore pellet plant at Nashwauk and add production facilities for higher-value DRI alongside.

The move follows closely upon the announcement last week that Liberty has reached agreement with ArcelorMittal to buy the Georgetown steelworks in South Carolina with its electric arc furnace and rod mill.

GFG Alliance companies, including the group’s financial services arm, Wyelands Capital, have a stated strategy to expand across North America. This replicates the group’s extensive growth in the UK where it is now a key player in the industrial, energy, property and financial sectors. The GFG Alliance is also expanding in Australia where Liberty and SIMEC are at an advanced stage in the process to secure major mining, recycling and steel assets.

The bid to acquire Mesabi Metallics fits with the GFG strategy to develop end-to-end integrated and sustainable businesses in North America, encompassing mining and energy production through to recycling, steel making and engineering, underpinned by the group’s financial services operation.

Under the Mesabi Metallics plan SIMEC would concentrate on the mining side of the business while Liberty would focus on developing the direct reduced iron (DRI) and hot briquetted iron (HBI) plants, whose products would be used in its electric arc furnaces in America and globally.

Sanjeev Gupta; executive chairman of the GFG Alliance said: “We are very pleased to team up with our partners in the Chippewa Capital Partners consortium to put forward this exciting proposal. We see this as a time of renewed opportunity for growth of American industry, and we have the breadth and depth of skill and experience to capitalise on that opportunity.”

Commenting on the consortium’s plans to broaden the scope of the Nashwauk project, ERPI executive Tom Clarke commented: “With electric-arc furnaces representing two-thirds of North America’s steel production it is critical for the revitalisation of the Iron Range to transition to the production of value-added products such as DRI, HBI. Simply adding another pellet producer does not expand the potential of the iron range.”

Jay Hambro, GFG’s Chief Investment Officer and CEO of SIMEC Mining, who has extensive international experience in the iron ore sector, said: “With current volatility in the iron ore price, it is important to focus on a low cost operation and on value-added products that have a long-term demand base. The Mesabi assets need a well-considered built-out programme under the leadership of a group investing with a view to long-term ownership.”

GFG’s international operations include: recycling, steelmaking and downstream products, power generation, natural resources, and trading business with 2017 revenues in excess of $9 billion. Liberty is the largest producer of steel and downstream engineered steel products in the UK with its products sold in over 50 countries. Liberty’s global trading operations include the sale of iron ore pellets, DRI and HBI through offices located on five continents.

ERPI is a part of the ERP Group which provides coking coal and coke to the steel industry throughout the world. The ERP group is the second largest producer of coking coal in North America with projected 2017 revenues in excess of $2 billion.

The consortium partners have a demonstrated commitment to the environment and the reduction of carbon dioxide emissions. GFG’s GREENSTEEL programme is focused on producing steel from recycled materials using renewable energy while the ERP Group operates a voluntary 10% percent offset of expected carbon dioxide emissions from the sale of its products through large-scale reforestation initiatives.

Senior international metals and mining executive Michael Morley, who has led multi-million dollar transformation programmes in the industry worldwide over the past 20 years, has been appointed to spearhead a drive by the GFG Alliance into the Australian market.

Michael, who is from Melbourne, will be GFG’s development director for Australia, following a decade with Nyrstar, the Belgian-listed global leader in mining and multi-metal processing, where he was senior vice-president for metals processing.  He was responsible for operations employing around 3,000 people at seven sites in Europe, USA and Australia and led the US$500m flagship project to completely revitalise the ageing Port Pirie lead smelter in South Australia.

Previously a corporate lawyer with Clayton Utz and in-house counsel for Smorgon Steel, he has been at the forefront of a whole succession of major acquisitions, investments and redevelopments in metals and mining.

As a respected specialist in mergers, acquisitions and restructures, he has a track record of success in securing and implementing high-profile deals for the industry across the globe, most running into hundreds of millions of dollars. He played a key role in the US$1.2 billion merger between the Smorgon Steel Group and OneSteel.

His extensive experience at senior level in the sector covers a wide range of metals, including steel, zinc, lead, silver and gold and encompasses both primary production and steel recycling.

He joins the GFG Alliance as its member companies, Liberty House and SIMEC, step up their efforts to secure and develop steel, energy and mining assets in Australia. This follows a vigorous 2016 investment drive which saw them spend around US$620million to acquire metals and energy assets in the UK.

Michael said: “There are big opportunities in Australia for metal producers who have ambition and innovative business models. The GFG Alliance has a bold and imaginative vision for a vertically-integrated and sustainable steel business that encompasses mining, liquid metal production, engineering and distribution and which also includes metal recycling and the use of renewable energy. It’s an exciting strategy that they are already pursuing successfully in the UK and I relish the prospect of taking on such a challenge in Australia and internationally.”

Sanjeev Gupta, executive chairman of the GFG Alliance said: “It is wonderful that Michael is joining the team given his achievements in the metals sector. We’re looking forward to working with him to establish a firm foothold in Australia and grow a market-leading business there.”

Plans for clean and competitive manufacturing industry, creating many hundreds of new jobs in the Highlands, took a significant step forward at Fort William aluminium smelter today [Friday 3rd March].

Only 10 weeks after acquiring the smelter and two associated hydro-power stations for £330m and securing 170 jobs, GFG Alliance companies, Liberty British Aluminium and SIMEC Lochaber Power, have begun the task of developing an advanced auto-components plant there that promises to generate a further 600 direct and indirect jobs.

The plant is the centrepiece of the £120m first phase of a major long-term investment in the area by the GFG Alliance that will eventually create a total of 1,000 direct and 1,000 indirect jobs and add £1 billion to the local economy.

Today GFG directors and Scottish Government hosted the first meeting the new ‘Lochaber Delivery Group,’ a special joint panel of local agencies set up to support the creation of the new auto plant through the provision of housing, training, infrastructure and services for workers.

Chaired by Cabinet Secretary for the Rural Economy, Fergus Ewing, the new group also includes representatives from The Highlands Council, Highlands and Islands Enterprise and other bodies and individuals needed to aid the progress of the project.

In a further milestone today, Cabinet Secretary Ewing, formally switched on SIMEC’s new £10m bio-diesel power plants at Fort William, boosting renewable energy supply to the site and making it the UK’s greenest metal-producing facility.

The site benefits from a plentiful supply of hydro-power but during abnormally dry periods aluminium production has to be reduced to conserve water. The new tallow-driven power plants will not only sustain production during these temporary shortages but will supply power to the grid on demand when needed, for example when there are low wind levels.

Sanjeev Gupta, executive chairman of the GFG Alliance said after the meeting: “I am delighted to report excellent progress in our work programme with partners in Scottish Government and local agencies. One of the reasons we invested in the Highlands was because people welcomed us here. That’s been reinforced by the positive response of the many agencies in the new Lochaber Delivery Group who showed today that they are eager to play their part in delivering the goal of a clean, competitive and sustainable manufacturing sector in the Highlands.”

Referring to the new bio-diesel power units Jay Hambro, chief investment officer of the GFG Alliance added: “Today we have begun to make the Highlands greener with an increase in renewable energy. Aluminium production makes an intensive and substantial demand on electricity supply but, with our new generation units, we will move towards becoming a net contributor to the grid. This is another key step forward in our GREENSTEEL plans where we combine renewable energy with metal production.”

Cabinet Secretary Ewing said: “We have built up excellent working relations with Liberty and SIMEC over the past 18 months as they have invested heavily in Scottish industry. Through the Lochaber Delivery Group look forward to continuing to work with them to facilitate and maximise the opportunity their investments will bring. That includes planning for housing and associated services, the construction of the new factory and the right training provision for workers.

“With the first meeting of the Lochaber Delivery Group today, and redevelopment work at the smelter now underway, an exciting new chapter in the history of the local area has now begun. The UK’s last remaining aluminium smelter will continue as a key component of Scotland’s industrial capability and a major source of employment in the Highlands and Islands, and the planned factory promises further expansion and opportunity for communities in Lochaber and beyond.”

The ‘Micro-gen’ bio-fuel plants commissioned today are part of a nationwide programme by SIMEC to install renewable energy capacity at Liberty’s industrial sites that can deliver power on demand within seconds. In the initial phase there will be seven strategically-located plants with a combined capacity of up to 200 megawatts.

This network is a key pillar of the GFG Alliance’s GREENSTEEL strategy which includes the use of a wide range of renewable energy sources to power metal production, including the recycling of used steel in electric arc furnaces.