Reykjavik - Icelandic pop singer Bjork performed for a crowd of more than 10,000 people at a concert organized to protest plans for a new aluminium smelting plant to be built on the island. The free, open-air concert also had performances by Sigur Ros, Iceland's most internationally successful rock band, and other popular artists on the isolated island in the North Atlantic.
The event was held to protest a planned smelter, which would process aluminium using power generated by the island's plentiful, clean geothermal resources.
Leading US aluminium firm Alcoa is studying the feasibility of the plant, which would produce 250,000 tons of metal a year, outside the town Husavik in North Iceland.
The price of aluminium and other industrial metals has soared on world markets, amid an economic slowdown in Iceland.
Opponents of the smelters focus on the possible flooding of wilderness areas from the construction of dams, which would produce hydroelectric power and collect water for use in geothermal production, in which water is injected into deep wells to be heated by underground lava. Iceland's high rate of volcanism makes it the world's top producer of geothermal energy.
The first of several proposed aluminium plants was completed and went into production last year in eastern Iceland.
