Mubasher: Aluminium Bahrain (Alba) seeks a credit rating before talks with banks about fundraising for its $3.5 billion Line 6 expansion project, a company official told Reuters.

Construction of the project is expected to start in 2016 and production to begin in 2019, the company said in June.

JP Morgan, Gulf International Bank and National Bank of Bahrain are the project's financial advisers.

Alba was considering some options to fund the scheme, including loans, export credit agency finance and a capital markets transaction, said banking sources who spoke on condition of anonymity as the subject isn't public.

"We will be looking at the funding mix in conversations with our financial advisers, but no decisions have yet been made on how this important project for Alba and Bahrain will be financed," said the official.