Alcoa to scale up production at its Pinjarra alumina refinery

Alcoa has flagged a move to expand production at its Pinjarra refinery by up to 20 per cent, winning environmental approval to push the facility’s total alumina output to five million tonnes a year.

The Environmental Protection Authority last month ticked off on an Alcoa application to amend existing environmental approvals to boost the refinery’s nameplate capacity from 4.2mtpa to 5mtpa, with a corresponding increase in mining at its Huntley bauxite operations.

A spokeswoman for Alcoa said yesterday the approval related to “potential future production” at the facility, and no major capital works were planned at Pinjarra. “Any production increases would be achieved through incremental process efficiency improvements,” she said.

It is understood the company hopes to push production rates up incrementally over the next two to three years as part of a broader productivity program. It is unclear whether the incremental tonnes at Pinjarra could further push back Alcoa’s much-delayed ambition to almost double the capacity at its Wagerup refinery to 4.7mtpa, which would require a multibillion-dollar capital spend at a time the aluminium industry still faces significant global headwinds.

The expansion plan was initially approved in 2006, but the global financial crisis forced it from the table. A review into the company's global alumina operations is continuing, despite last week’s announcement it planned to split in two and separate upstream mining operations from its specialist aluminium manufacturing.

Alcoa this year committed to a long-term future in WA, locking in a 12-year gas supply deal with Quadrant Energy. The company is also still believed to be exploring options to export bauxite directly from its South West operations.

Alcoa chairman Klaus Kleinfeld told analysts on its July quarterly investor call it had sent bauxite samples to customers for testing, but the company is still to announce any results from that programme. While the move sparked some concerns Alcoa may seek to shift its refining capacity offshore in the future, it is understood its plans revolve around bauxite that cannot be processed at Pinjarra or its other WA refineries.

The EPA green light for the Pinjarra expansion includes approval for Alcoa to increase its greenhouse gas emissions from the plant by 10 per cent, to 2.6mtpa.