Alcoa secures first major export contract to supply bauxite from Western Australia mine

<p>Alcoa Corporation, the world&rsquo;s largest bauxite miner, today announced that Alcoa World Alumina and Chemicals (AWAC) has secured its first major third-party contract to supply approximately 400,000 bone dry metric tons (bdmt) of bauxite from its Huntly mine in Western Australia (WA), furthering Alcoa&rsquo;s strategy to grow its third-party bauxite business.<br /><br />&ldquo;This Western Australian contract comes just months after our first trial bauxite shipment from WA to China in mid-2016, which successfully introduced our WA product to the global market,&rdquo; said Garret Dixon, President of Alcoa Bauxite, who is based in Perth.</p> <p><img style="vertical-align: middle; display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" src="http://www.alcircle.com/uploads/images/Alcoa.jpg" alt="News" width="517" height="226" /><br />The WA State Government has also granted approval for Alcoa to export up to 2.5 million metric tons per annum of bauxite for five years to third-party customers.</p> <p>&rdquo;Bauxite exports have the potential to generate greater value from our WA mineral lease, creating additional revenue streams for Alcoa and the State of Western Australia, while maintaining supply to our three WA refineries,&rdquo; Mr Dixon said.</p> <p><strong>{googleAdsense}</strong><br /><br />The WA contract is one of three bauxite agreements recently signed worth a total of $US126 million to deliver approximately 2.2 million bdmt of bauxite to customers in China in 2017. In addition to the WA contract, Alcoa will supply bauxite from its two mines in Brazil&mdash;Juruti and Minera&ccedil;&atilde;o Rio do Norte, where Alcoa and AWAC hold an 18.2 percent equity investment. The two supply agreements for Brazil bauxite replace 2016 contract volume.<br /><br />The contracts increase the total value of Alcoa&rsquo;s 2016 and 2017 third-party bauxite supply agreements to nearly $US600 million.<br /><br />Alcoa, the world&rsquo;s largest bauxite miner with 45.3 million bdmt of production in 2015, has mines in proximity to major markets and holds a first quartile cost curve position. Alcoa projects that the market for third-party bauxite demand will double between 2015 and 2024, with China as the biggest importer of bauxite.<br /><br />The AWAC group of companies is owned 60 percent by Alcoa Corporation and 40 percent by Alumina Limited of Australia.<br /><br />On November 1, Alcoa Corporation announced it had completed the separation from its parent company Alcoa Inc. (now named Arconic Inc.) and began operating as an independent, publicly-traded company. <br /><br /></p>