The US aluminum trihydrate market strengthened in September 2026 as downstream procurement, rising overseas production costs, and shipping bottlenecks supported prices. In contrast, Bosnia’s market faced a quarterly correction as European buyers drew on accumulated inventories and lower caustic soda costs eased manufacturing pressures, highlighting diverging regional price trends. US aluminum trihydrate market gains on demand and supply constraints US aluminum trihydrate prices increased 2.38% month over month in September, supported by purchases from wire and cable manufacturers, electrical infrastructure compounders, and electric vehicle (EV) component producers. Demand remained particularly resilient for applications involving low-smoke cable compounds and flame-retardant materials....
China-based China Aluminum International Engineering Co., Ltd. (CHALIECO) has won a bid for an engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract valued at approximately USD 833 million for a proposed alumina project in Vietnam, adding to investment activity in the country’s mineral processing sector. The project, being developed by Binh Phuoc Ore Mining and Beneficiation Joint Stock Company, is designed to process 2.4 million tonnes of alumina annually. The proposed contract is valued at around CNY 5.595 billion (USD 839.04 million), with completion expected within 27 months of the contract’s effective date. CHALIECO to oversee turnkey refinery development Under the proposed turnkey arrangement, CHALIECO’s responsibilities will cover the full project delivery process, from...
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With at least seven firms starting construction of mineral smelting plants in Indonesia this year, the Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry is pressing on with its plan to completely ban the export of unprocessed minerals in 2014 as stipulated in the 2009 Mining Law, despite a challenge by business players. The ministry’s director general for minerals and coals Thamrin Sihite said on Monday the firms included the Bintang Delapan Group, which was currently constructing its nickel smelting facility in Central Sulawesi and state-owned mining company PT Aneka Tambang (Antam), which had begun work on its smelter-grade alumina (SGA) plant in Mempawah, West Kalimantan. Bintang has reportedly teamed up with China’s Dingxin Group in an investment worth up to US$1 billion to build the plant, which...
India's largest aluminium maker, is considering layoffs within two months at its alumina refinery in Odisha as hopes of an immediate revival of the plant fade, the president of the company said. VAL, a unit of London-listed Vedanta Resources, has about 550 employees. It closed down the 1-million-tonne per year refinery exactly two weeks ago due to a shortage of bauxite, the key raw material used to produce alumina. The world's fifth-biggest bauxite producer, has been limiting the issue of bauxite leases mainly because of local protests over land acquisition. "We don't know how long this crisis will continue. We don't have any other choice left but to retrench staff," VAL President Mukesh Kumar told Reuters. "It could be 10 or 100 by January-February depending on the situation," Kumar...
Orbite Aluminae of Montreal has begun commissioning its first high purity alumina (HPA) plant, located in Cap-Chat. Construction is mostly complete, plant pre-operating tests are progressing and many sections of the plant are being commissioned. Commercial production should be attained at the beginning of Q2 2013. The HPA plant will begin production at a rate of less than 1 t/d, and the rate will increase to 3 t/d by mid-2013 and to 5 t/d by the end of next year. Orbite says the ramp-up schedule could be accelerated if customer demand exceeds expectations. High purity alumina is used primarily to manufacture industrial sapphires, which can be used as substrates in LED lights, LED screens and integrated circuits. HPA is also used in automotive sensors and other applications. Orbite...
Mining company PT Aneka Tambang, known as Antam, has given the Japanese Sumitomo Corporation the task of working on the development of coal-fired power plants, which forms part of the company’s modernization work on its ferronickel factory in Pomalaa, Southeast Sulawesi. Antam is also in the process of developing a chemical grade alumina project to process bauxite in Tayan, West Kalimantan with a total investment of $450 million. The Tayan chemical grade alumina project already has financial support from the Japan Bank for International Corporation and a consortium of Japanese banks. According to a file submitted to the bourse, the construction of Antam’s Tayan project was 86 percent complete and was expected to be finalized in 2014. Apart from the Tayan project, the company is also...
Even after 20 years and investments of over Rs 5,000 crore, the 1.5-million-tonne alumina refinery project of Utkal Alumina International Ltd (UAIL), a subsidiary of the Kumar Mangalam Birla’s Hindalco, is yet to see the light of the day. As the company gears up to give a final push to complete the refinery work by the first quarter of 2013, renewed call of the project opponents to intensify their stir against the projects signals fresh troubles ahead for the company. The war cry was given on Sunday, when several tribal people gathered at Maikanch, near the UAIL’s project site in Rayagada to pay tribute to the three persons killed in police firing on agitators protesting against land acquisition for the plant 12 years ago. Utkal Alumina was conceived in 1992 to tap huge deposits of...
The company’s bid to continue the refinery operation by sourcing bauxite from other states like Gujarat, Maharashtra, Chhatishgarh, Jharkhand and Andhra Pradesh was also thwarted by various logistic, regulatory and procedural issues. Even as Vedanta Aluminium Ltd (VAL) has shut down its Lanjigarh refinery for want of bauxite, the company has not retrenched any employee, said a report submitted by district labour officer (DLO), Kalahandi. VAL has closed its plant from December5 basing on a three-months advance notice to the state government and had attributed the cause of closure of refinery to economic unviability of the plant in the absence of assured supply of bauxite. “The management of VAL, Lanjigarh, Kalahandi has stopped production of alumina from December 5 as per the notice to the...
Some 3-5 foreign investors are now studying to invest in alumina business in Indonesia with total investment expected to reach US$10 billion, equivalent Rp96 trillion, Investor Daily reported this morning. Panggah Susanto, general director of manufacture-based industry at the Industry Ministry, said that potential investors, including an investor from Dubai, are now conducting a detail study and approaching the existing holders of the mining licenses for building a partnership. He said the investment focusing on mining will be made in Kalimantan as the basis of mining resources. Currently four companies had invested in mining and metal downstream. They are PT Krakatau Posco, PT Indonesia Chemical Alumina, PT Ferronikel Halmahera Timur and PT Batulicin Steel.
Chief Minister Terry Mills says a deal that could ensure the future of the Gove Alumina Refinery in the Northern Territory's Gulf country is expected tomorrow. The Government hopes converting the struggling refinery from expensive diesel fuel to natural gas will allow it to remain operational. It has been holding talks with gas company ENI to try to secure enough gas supply to make the conversion possible. The government says the discussions have been productive. In a statement, the operator of the refinery, Pacific Aluminium, says it has received positive support from the Territory and Federal governments. The company says it has been negotiating to secure a gas supply, pipeline construction, land access and environmental approvals. It also says it is still considering suspending...
The price of alumina is expected to crest and stabilise at about $330/t by the end of the year, buoyed by strong demand from the construction and high-technology sectors, Quebec project developer Orbite Aluminae CEO Richard Boudreault believes. The alumina market is expected to expand by about 6% a year, while that of more refined high-purity alumina (HPA), is expected to grow by about 15% to 20% a year. According to Boudreault, one of the strongest trends currently driving up the demand for aluminium, which is derived from alumina, is the construction sector. When one looks at the construction-materials market in broad terms, aluminium is currently cheaper than wood, owing to the price for aluminium currently being depressed and that of wood rising, as the US housing industry is slowly...
Aluminium smelters in China, the world's top producer and consumer of the metal, have agreed on higher ratios of metal prices next year to value purchases of the raw material alumina, spurred by worries of tighter supply at home. Deals for 2013 alumina imports were set at about 16.1 to 16.3 percent of London Metal Exchange (LME) aluminium prices , free on board, higher than the 15.2 percent to 15.5 percent paid in 2012, traders and sources at smelters said. Those percentages translate into prices of alumina. For example, the rate of 16.1 percent of Thursday's LME aluminium price of $2,133.5 per tonne would work out to a price of $343.5 per tonne of alumina, FOB. Chinese smelters also accepted higher ratios in recent weeks, when LME aluminium prices fell below $2,000 per tonne, giving...
Elemental mercury—emitted as vapour from some aluminium refineries operating the Bayer process—is recognised by many international governments as a health risk and research worldwide is focused on solutions for mercury adsorption and safe disposal. Research published in Chemical Engineering, studied SIACs and compared them for mercury absorption effectiveness within Bayer gas emissions which are unique in composition and highly complex in their chemistry. By-products of the Bayer process include non-condensable gases like volatile organic carbons (VOCs), water vapour, ammonia and elemental mercury in vapour form. Lead author, Mark Mullett, who completed research while at Alcoa, says these conditions are challenging for mercury adsorption because VOCs and water vapour can compete for...
Eight years ago, Kada Majhi, a tribal woman of Kinari, a village in the Kalahandi district of Odisha, eked out a living with paltry wages as a daily labourer. When Vedanta Aluminium started constructing a one-million-tonne-per-annum aluminium refinery at Lanjigarh, she, along with her husband and five children, shifted to Niyamagiri Vedanta Nagar, a model township, set up by the company to rehabilitate persons displaced by the project. Since then, the economic profile of the family has improved significantly. While Kada, 32, started working as a tailor in the Maa Manikeswari Self Help Group, promoted by Vedanta Aluminium, after required skill training, her husband got a job in the factory that fetched him Rs 15,000 per month. The children study at the DAV Vedanta International School —...
The Northern Territory Government hopes a decision will be made this week on a plan to help save a Rio Tinto alumina refinery on the Gove peninsula in remote north-east Arnhem Land. The Territory's Chief Minister says any closure of the refinery could devastate the nearby mining town of Nhulunbuy, which has also become a service hub for Indigenous people in the area. The Territory and Federal Governments are discussing a plan to pipe gas to the Gove peninsula in a bid to convince the company to keep the plant running. The Rio Tinto-owned Pacific Aluminium is reviewing its alumina refinery and bauxite mine on the Gove Peninsula. Dave Suter from the local Chamber of Commerce says businesses are already feeling the pinch as the company cuts costs. One option on the table is suspending the...
If the aim of the latest alumina symposium in India organized by the International Bauxite, Alumina and Aluminum Society was to provide a platform for the industry to highlight technological developments, new products and their market potential, it was not far off the mark. Company representatives showcased some groundbreaking technologies. The Times of India reported that Orbite Aluminae Incorporated (OAI), a private Canadian company, had developed a process of alumina production that, instead of bauxite, was using aluminous clay or clay rich in alumina and silica to produce extremely pure alumina that was then converted into aluminum. According to the report, this first-of-its-kind technology will most likely replace the 125-year-old ‘Bayer Process’ used to produce alumina. The...
Even as Vedanta Aluminium Ltd (VAL) today started the process of shutting down its Lanjigarh aluminium refinery, the Odisha government claimed the closure notice given by the company was “not in the proper format” as stipulated by the provisions of the Industrial Disputes Act. “We have not received any information in the prescribed format from the concerned company as per the provisions of the Industrial Disputes Act,” Deputy Labour Commissioner Narendra Kumar Samantray told Business Standard. He said that the closure notice would be taken into cognizance by the state government only after receiving it in the prescribed format. Samantray pointed out that VAL had only written a formal letter in September, intimating its intention to close down the 1 mtpa (million tonne per annum) refinery...
Global Alumina Corporation, a corporation participating in a joint venture to develop an alumina refinery, mine and associated infrastructure in the bauxite-rich region of the Republic of Guinea, announced today that Dubai Aluminium Company Limited ("DUBAL") and MCD Industry Holding Company LLC ("Mubadala") have waived their pre-emptive rights to purchase their pro rata share of Broken Hill Proprietary Company Limited's ("BHP Billiton") interests in the Project. Therefore, under the terms of the previously announced sale and purchase agreement ("SPA") with BHP Billiton, and subject to certain conditions stipulated therein, Global Alumina will acquire all of BHP Billiton's one-third interest in the Project, increasing Global Alumina's ownership interests in the Project from its current...
Vedanta Aluminium Ltd (VAL), a unit of London-based Vedanta Resources, will shut its one-million-tonne (mt) alumina refinery from tomorrow. The company had issued a three-month advance notice in September to close the refinery from Wednesday, as it had no bauxite stock to run the plant beyond the deadline. “The bauxite stock is zero. Despite our best efforts we could not secure bauxite supply for the plant. So we are forced to shut the refinery from tomorrow, according to the notice sent to the state government earlier”, Mukesh Kumar, chief executive, VAL, told Business Standard. “Whatever raw material resources we have, the three-member inter-ministerial group will decide on its supply to industries within three months”, said steel & mines minister Rajani Kant Singh. Though stoppage of...
Aluminium industry in the world is set to undergo a revolution. The industry can now hope for much cheaper and environment friendly technology. Orbite Aluminae Incorporated (OLI), a private company in Canada, has developed a new process of alumina production. Instead of using bauxite, the conventional ore for aluminium, the new process uses aluminous clay or clay rich in alumina and silica to produce extremely pure alumina that is then converted into aluminium. It is first of its kind technology which may replace the 125-year-old 'Bayer's process' used to produce alumina. The process is a result of almost 12 years of research and has yielded good results on pilot scale. OLI has already patented the process in USA, China and a few other countries. OLI's director sales and marketing,...
