Plans by a Sarawak-based firm and global miner Rio Tinto to build a massive aluminium smelter were attacked amid claims it could further marginalise indigenous groups.

Hood Salleh of the Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia's indigenous people's studies said locals would not benefit from the smelter if it proceeded.

"Building this aluminium smelter is not going to make things for anyone easier and neither can it benefit anyone at this moment," Hood said.

On Tuesday, Anglo-Australian miner Rio Tinto signed an agreement with Malaysia's Cahaya Mata Sarawak (CMS) to study building what could be one of the world's largest aluminium smelters.

CMS, a Sarawak conglomerate with interests in banking, financial services and construction, is linked to Sarawak chief minister Abdul Taib Mahmud's family.

But the project is running into controversy, with the smelter expected to tap power from the Bakun Dam being built on Borneo island which activists have dubbed an environmental disaster.

The cost of the smelter was not disclosed but industry sources have indicated a figure of around US$2 billion (RM6.93 billion).

The study will take 12 to 18 months, covering technical, operational, environmental, social and economic analysis of the proposed smelter.

Hood noted that the Bakun dam project had already forced some 20 tribal communities to relocate in an area that lacked drinking water and sanitation facilities.

"I heard there are also other kind of problems and what the authorities must strive to do now is to settle all of it before allowing any of this projects to kick off," Hood said in a forum organised by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) to mark the World Indigenous Day.

Covering up one disaster with another

Colin Nicholas, coordinator of the Center for Orang Asli (Indigenous People) Concerns, and a guest speaker at the forum today dismissed the supposed economic benefits that the smelter project would provide.

"From our point of view, by allowing the Rio Tinto project to go ahead, it is just like trying to cover up one natural disaster with another.

"Another big project like this will see more green forestry being wiped out and that itself is another disaster," Nicholas said.

The Rio Tinto smelter is projected to produce 550,000 tonnes of aluminium per year, rising eventually to 1.5 million tonnes when it commences operations in the last quarter of 2010.

It is also expected to boost Rio Tinto's output, its chief executive Oscar Groeneveld earlier told AF P.

"Rio Tinto will take all the necessary steps to ensure the safety of the environment," he said on Tuesday.