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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Mining giant BHP Billiton would sell its 33.3% interest in the Guinea Alumina joint venture (JV) to it partners for $1. Under the current project shareholders agreement, each of the JV partners – TSX-listed Global Alumina Corporation, Dubai Aluminium Company (Dubal) and MCD Industry Holding Company (Mubadala) – had the right to purchase a proportionate share of the interest to be sold. Global Alumina said this week that, depending on whether each of the other two JV partners exercised their options, its own shareholding in the Guinea Alumina JV could increase from the current 33.3% to between 50% and 66.7%. “BHP’s willingness to sell its one-third interest in the project to its partners represents a significant, positive milestone for Global Alumina and the project, as the remaining...
Cape Alumina is to raise close to $1.5 million in two separate placements that would help it fund development of its core bauxite projects in Queensland. Cape has placed about 3.8 million shares with stockbroker RBS Morgans at 12 cents per share to raise $456,359. Separately, it has also placed about 7.1 million shares at 14 cents a pop with Racle Resources to raise $1 million. The company also sold its non-core Hey Point bauxite tenements and its Cape York mineral sands interests Racle Resources. The transaction valued at about $3.4 million includes a cash payment of $1.5 million and a 2-3% royalty on all bauxite sold from Hey Point. Cape Alumina will retain the marketing rights and receive a fee. The NPV for the Hey Point sale is estimated to be $3.4 million or about $0.90 per inferred...
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 it has entered into a sale and purchase agreement ("SPA") with the Broken Hill Proprietary Company Limited ("BHP Billiton"), one of the joint venture partners in the Project, for the acquisition of BHP Billiton's one-third interest in the Project. Under the existing Project shareholders' agreement, each of Dubai Aluminium Company Limited ("DUBAL") and MCD Industry Holding Company LLC ("Mubadala"), the other two Project joint venture partners, has the right to purchase its proportionate share of the interests to be sold under the SPA. Global Alumina's ownership interest in...
Vedanta Aluminium Ltd (VAL) whose smelter plant has run into a crisis as a fall-out of raw material crunch crippling its alumina refinery at Lanjigarh, said it is ready to source alumina from National Aluminium Company (Nalco) at export price. “Our smelter operations have been affected because of the bauxite crisis surrounding our alumina refinery. We are in talks with Nalco and have requested them to offer us alumina at their export price,” Anil Agarwal , chairman of London listed Vedanta Resources Plc told the media here after his meeting with chief minister Naveen Patnaik. VAL’s one million tonne refinery at Lanjigarh feeds alumina to its smelter complex at Jharsuguda in Odisha’s western belt. For more than three months now, the refinery has been suffering due to dearth of bauxite. The...
Cape Alumina could have a significant transaction to reveal with the company that granted a trading halt this morning by the ASX. Cape Alumina said the halt was required pending 'negotiations for a number of significant transactions which are currently underway between the company and a third party.' No further details have yet been released. The company had $3.4 million in cash at the end of September 2012. The halt will last until the earlier of an announcement being made to the market, or the opening of trade on Friday 2nd November.
Guinea will maintain its 4.8 percent growth forecast for 2012, 0.9 percent higher than the previous year, despite a sharp fall in gold, diamond and alumina production, a report by the finance ministry showed on Tuesday. The mineral-rich West African nation, which relies on mining for about 80 percent of its revenues and 20 percent of growth, is the world's top supplier of the aluminium ore bauxite and holds rich deposits of iron ore, gold and diamonds. Mining firms have signed billions of dollars' worth of deals targeting Guinea's reserves but ongoing political uncertainty, labour strife, and a government review of mining contracts has cooled recent investment. "The government has forecast real GDP growth at 4.8 percent in 2012 compared with 3.9 percent in 2011," the report said....
Operators have again delayed the opening of the Tan Rai alumina plant in the Central Highlands province of Lam Dong for an undetermined period of time. Before this latest delay for the country’s first-ever alumina plant, the facility was supposed to go into operation on November 1. “The alumina plant is the core of the whole complex, and its operation depends greatly on satellite projects such as the power plants, the ore mine, and the red mud lake,” Tan Rai management board director Phan Boi Loi told Tuoi Tre in explaining the delay. Loi said the satellite facilities are basically completed, but their operations are unstable and unsynchronized. The two power plants, whose capacity is 15MW each, failed to ensure their capacity during the pilot operating periods, while the conveyor belts...
Orbite Aluminae on Tuesday said it had entered into an agreement with US chemicals consultant M&K for the engineering and construction of a separation plant capable of producing gallium oxide at a purity of 4N (99.99%) and scandium oxide at a purity of 2N or greater (99%+) from the acid recovery circuit of its high-purity alumina (HPA) plant in Cap-Chat, Quebec. The agreement with the St Louis, Missouri-based M&K was a significant advancement for Orbite’s business plan, which had previously expected the separation and production of these two oxides would begin with the company’s smelter-grade alumina (SGA) plant. The separation facility, which had already been designed as part of the SGA plant, would now be integrated into the HPA design, thus advancing the production of gallium and...
Operations at Rio Tinto's alumina facilities at Gove in the Northern Territory could be temporarily suspended. The ABC understands the mine operator, Pacific Aluminium, called a meeting with workers today to announce it is conducting a strategic review into the bauxite mine and refinery. The company says the temporary suspension of the refinery, about 600 kilometres east of Darwin, is one of the options being considered by the review, triggered by difficult global market conditions. Pacific Aluminium says it is also exploring options to switch powering the refinery with gas, instead of more expensive fuel oils. In a statement, the company says it is trying to make the Gove operations financially viable but will not know the outcome of its review until January. It has already signalled...
Rio Tinto Alcan's Yarwun refinery expansion project opens More than 600 employees, Gladstone community representatives and local Indigenous leaders joined with Rio Tinto Alcan and Queensland Premier Campbell Newman today to launch the $2.5 billion Yarwun alumina refinery expansion in Gladstone. President and chief executive officer of Rio Tinto Alcan Bauxite & Alumina, Pat Fiore, said he was delighted that a Traditional Owner representative from Weipa was also on hand to witness the opening. "The Yarwun expansion project more than doubles production at the refinery to 3.4 million tonnes of alumina per year, enhancing Rio Tinto Alcan's position as one of the world's leading bauxite and alumina producers," Mr Fiore said. "And just as importantly, today's opening highlights how the Yarwun...
Vedanta Resources VED.LN -1.66% PLC has resumed operations at its alumina refinery in the eastern Indian state of Orissa where production was suspended for more than a week due to a shortage of bauxite, a raw material. "We have started operations at the plant on Monday after we received bauxite supplies from Gujarat state (in western India)," Arun Bhatt, a spokesman for Vedanta Aluminium Ltd., said Tuesday. He said the plant is currently operating at 30%-40% of its capacity. Mr. Bhatt said the company will make all efforts to keep the plant running until Dec. 5. The company had earlier informed the Orissa government that it would stop production at the refinery by Dec. 5 if it couldn't get enough bauxite. The plant has a capacity of 1.0 million metric tons a year. Vedanta wanted to source...
Operations at Rio Tinto's alumina facilities at Gove in the Northern Territory could be temporarily suspended. The ABC understands the mine operator, Pacific Aluminium, called a meeting with workers today to announce it is conducting a strategic review into the bauxite mine and refinery. The company says the temporary suspension of the refinery, about 600 kilometres east of Darwin, is one of the options being considered by the review, triggered by difficult global market conditions. Pacific Aluminium says it is also exploring options to switch powering the refinery with gas, instead of more expensive fuel oils. In a statement, the company says it is trying to make the Gove operations financially viable but will not know the outcome of its review until January. It has already signalled...
The current state of Australia's natural gas markets is squeezing out investment opportunities for the Australian alumina refining industry - an industry that includes some of the country's largest users of natural gas. Responding to the release of the National Institute of Economic and Industry Research report into the eastern gas market, AAC Executive Director Miles Prosser said "We are seeing uncertainty around the future domestic supply situation in Australia's key natural gas markets of eastern and western Australia." "The reshaping of domestic markets brought about by the boom in LNG exports is impacting on the alumina industry's ability to secure long.
According to SMM's survey, alumina prices at port were between RMB 2,650-2,670/mt despite rising imported alumina prices in September. This is because increasing supply of alumina at port has curbed the big increase in prices. Traders told SMM that imported alumina at Lianyungang port were quoted at RMB 2,670/mt, but traded prices were RMB 2,650/mt. Alumina stocks at port are rising along with growing imports. The local traders expect alumina prices at port to drop by RMB 20-30/mt in the second half of October. SMM has confirmed that FOB prices for Australian alumina were USD 320/mt in September, while CIF prices averaged at USD 344/mt, USD 5/mt higher than USD 339/mt in August. It was reported earlier that the rise in Australian alumina prices in September was attributable to growing...
Rio Tinto chief executive Tom Albanese said "We have delivered another strong set of production results in the third quarter, including record quarterly Pilbara iron ore production. Copper, bauxite, alumina, and titanium dioxide production were all higher than in the same quarter of 2011. "As we said at our Investor Seminar last week, markets remain volatile, but our business is resilient and our operations are performing strongly, reflecting our consistent strategy of running large, long-life, cost-competitive operations." • Record quarterly Pilbara iron ore production of 63 million tonnes (Rio Tinto share 50 million tonnes), five per cent higher than the third quarter of 2011. Global iron ore production for the quarter totalled 67 million tonnes (Rio Tinto share 53 million tonnes), five...
China’s imports of alumina climbed in September to the highest in almost three years, to meet the country’s expanding aluminium smelting capacity. Inbound shipments of alumina stood at 480,000 tonnes last month, the highest monthly volume since January 2010, according to preliminary customs data released over the weekend. September’s imports were up 52.4% from August and were six times the amount recorded a year earlier.
Queensland Alumina Limited (QAL) confirmed jobs will be cut at its plant in Gladstone. Low global prices and the high Australian dollar have been blamed for the job losses at the 40 year old refinery. In a statement announcing the cuts, QAL chairman Armando Torres took a swipe at 'new taxes' for the pressure facing the aluminium industry. "The aluminium structure in Australia is facing extremely difficult market conditions due to a high exchange rate, higher costs of production, low metal process and new taxes," Torres said. While the company would not comment on how many jobs would be lost, it said that frontline roles were safe. The Observer reports the job cuts will be a blow to community morale in QLD’s central region as QAL has been a major source of employment for more than four...
Reuters reported that China's aluminium smelters are expected to step up imports of spot alumina next year to skirt more expensive term deals. Industry sources said in a move that could boost spot prices of the raw material in Asia. Chinese smelters have received term alumina offers for 2013 at 15.5% to 16.5% of London Metal Exchange aluminium prices free on board higher than 15.2% to 15.5% they paid for 2012 shipments.
