"By lowering our own emissions, increasing recycling and helping our customers develop products that enable CO2 savings; we aim to make carbon neutrality a reality." Mr. Alberto Fabrini, Executive Vice President - Head of Bauxite and Alumina, Hydro, Brazil

Brazil is Hydro's main source for bauxite and it employs more than 6,000 people in the country for their business in the aluminium value chain. Hydro extracts bauxite in Paragominas and Trombetas and refines bauxite to alumina at the world's largest alumina refinery, Alunorte. AlCircle had an opportunity to talk to Mr. Alberto Fabrini, Executive Vice President - Head of Bauxite and Alumina, Hydro, Brazil and he shared a few crucial aspects of Hydro’s aluminium business in Brazil.

AlCircle: Brazil is Hydro's main source for bauxite with two large mines at Paragominas and Trombetas. Please share with us the current bauxite situation in Brazil.

Mr. Alberto Fabrini: The bauxite situation for Hydro in Brazil is quite satisfactory. As a result of our ‘from B to A’ improvement program, we have gradually been increasing production levels at the Paragominas mine. Paragominas has a nameplate capacity of 9.9 million tons of annual production. In Q4 2014 we were producing at an annualized speed of around 10.2 million tons, 0.3 million tons above nameplate capacity. This came somewhat down in Q1 due to maintenance, but is now back at high levels again following the maintenance period.