**Exhibit 31.1**

**CERTIFICATION**

| I, Travis  Engen, President and Chief Executive Officer of Alcan Inc. ("Alcan"), certify  that:
 
 
 
1.  I have reviewed this quarterly report on Form 10‐Q of      Alcan;
   
2.  Based on my knowledge, this report does not contain  any untrue statement of a material fact or omit to state a material fact  necessary to make the statements made, in light of the circumstances under  which such statements were made, not misleading with respect to the period  covered by this report;
   
3.  Based on my knowledge, the financial statements, and  other financial information included in this report, fairly present in all  material respects the financial condition, results of operations and cash  flows of the registrant as of, and for, the periods presented in this report;
   
4.  The registrant's other certifying officers and I are  responsible for establishing and maintaining disclosure controls and  procedures (as defined in Exchange Act Rules 13a‐15(e) and 15d‐15(e)) and  internal control over financial reporting (as defined in Exchange Act Rules  13a-15(f) and 15d-15(f)) for the registrant and have:
   
 a)  Designed such disclosure controls and procedures, or caused such  disclosure controls and procedures to be designed under our supervision, to  ensure that material information relating to the registrant, including its  consolidated subsidiaries, is made known to us by others within those  entities, particularly during the period in which this report is being  prepared;
   
 b)  Designed such internal control over financial reporting, or caused such  internal control over financial reporting to be designed under our  supervision, to provide reasonable assurance regarding the reliability of  financial reporting and the preparation of financial statements for external  purposes in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles;
   
 c)  Evaluated the effectiveness of the registrant's disclosure controls and  procedures and presented in this report our conclusions about the  effectiveness of the disclosure controls and procedures, as of the end of the  period covered by this report based on such evaluation; and
   
 d)  Disclosed in this report any change in the registrant's internal  control over financial reporting that occurred during the registrant's most  recent fiscal quarter (the registrant's fourth fiscal quarter in the case of  an annual report) that has materially affected, or is reasonably likely to  materially affect, the registrant's internal control over financial reporting;  and
   
5.  The registrant's other certifying officers and I  have disclosed, based on our most recent evaluation of internal control over  financial reporting, to the registrant's auditors and the audit committee of  registrant's board of directors (or persons performing the equivalent  function):
   
 a)  All significant deficiencies and material weaknesses in the design or  operation of internal control over financial reporting which are reasonably  likely to adversely affect the registrant's ability to record, process,  summarize and report financial information; and
   
 b)  Any fraud, whether or not material, that involves management or other  employees who have a significant role in the registrant's internal control  over financial reporting.
Date: 10 May 2005            

                                                                                           /s/ Travis Engen

Travis    Engen
 President and  Chief Executive Officer |
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