Congo, BHP Billiton Inga 3 talks advanced

Congo formally invited offers to build the project on the Congo River yesterday, Energy Minister Gilbert Tshiongo Tshibinkubula wa Tumba said on Wednesday in Kinshasa, the capital. BHP, studying development of a smelter in the country, is continuing talks with the government on both ventures, which are at an "early conceptual phase," Rosheeka Amarasekara, a London-based spokeswoman for the company, said by telephone.

Inga 3 is part of the planned $22 billion Inga power complex, estimated to generate about 40, 000 megawatts, almost twice the capacity of China's Three Gorges dam. A previous proposal for the 5, 000-megawatt Inga 3, estimated to cost $5.2 billion, was shelved when Western Power Corridor, a venture between five African countries, was dissolved.