The Gov­ern­ment has signed a Mem­o­ran­dum of Un­der­stand­ing (MOU) with Pin­na­cle Steel and Vana­di­um Cor­po­ra­tion to be­gin dis­cus­sions on the re­fur­bish­ment, recom­mis­sion­ing and op­er­a­tion of the for­mer iron and steel plant at Point Lisas.

The agree­ment, signed on Fri­day by For­eign and CARI­COM Af­fairs Min­is­ter Sean Sobers on be­half of the Gov­ern­ment, es­tab­lish­es a frame­work for fur­ther dis­cus­sions and due dili­gence. Pin­na­cle Steel and Vana­di­um Cor­po­ra­tion re­cent­ly com­plet­ed the ac­qui­si­tion of the plant.

Ac­cord­ing to the Gov­ern­ment, the project goes be­yond the re­sump­tion of steel pro­duc­tion and could po­si­tion Trinidad and To­ba­go as a pro­duc­er of vana­di­um, a strate­gic met­al used in aero­space and de­fence ap­pli­ca­tions, in­clud­ing mil­i­tary air­craft.