Around 700 jobs at Aughinish Alumina in Limerick now appear to be fully secure after the US Treasury accepted concessions made by its owner to end sanctions imposed on it.

Around 700 jobs at Aughinish Alumina in Limerick are safe for now following a US senate vote to allow sanctions on its owner to be lifted — but the political fallout is not over after the House of Representatives voted the opposite way.

Aughinish Alumina workers in Limerick will be “mightily relieved” after the US Senate backed the US Treasury Department’s decision to lift sanctions on companies linked to Russian billionaire OlegDeripaska.

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar and the Irish ambassador in Washington DC, Dan Mulhall, are spearheading a critical lobbying effort in the US to stave off a threat to almost 700 jobs at Aughinish Alumina on the Shannon Estuary.

The threat to more than 650 jobs at Aughinish Alumina in Limerick appears to have eased as the US administration significantly softened its rhetoric on its owner Rusal and signalled it wanted to reach a deal.

The owner of Aughinish Alumina, which employs 450 and more than 200 contractors in Co Limerick, has said it is doing all it can to avoid US sanctions that have thrown its future into doubt in recent weeks.

Over 650 jobs at Aughinish Alumina in Limerick appear to be more secure after the US indicated it was close to a deal with the firm’s owner Rusal to end sanctions on the metals giant.

The storm “has yet to pass” over the Aughinish Alumina plant in Limerick because of its ties to Russian owner Rusal, but US import tariffs on aluminium pose no threat to its operations, according to a global aluminium expert.

An EU court has ordered the Government to recover over €10m in illegal state aid from Co Limerick-based metals refinery Aughinish Alumina.