International Responsible Business Conduct (IRBC) has completed a project examining aluminium and bauxite supply chains to improve transparency and traceability in materials supporting the renewable energy transition. The project brought together wind energy company Siemens Gamesa, Dutch cable manufacturer TKF, Digital Product Passport (DPP) technology provider Minespider, and project partner Responsible Trade. The initiative mapped selected upstream aluminium and bauxite supply chains and tested secure DPPs to organise and present traceability and sustainability information across multiple supplier tiers. Explore the production, demand and consumption forecasts of bauxite and alumina in our report: " Global Bauxite & Alumina Market Forecast to 2036: Supply–Demand, Trade Flows & Price...
Mount Ridley Mines has reported 94.9 per cent gallium recovery from a third-party bauxite sample using its patent-pending Selectro process, alongside recoveries of 92 per cent aluminium and 97 per cent iron in a single low-temperature leach. The test also produced a silica-rich residue instead of conventional red mud, highlighting the technology’s potential to recover multiple metals from bauxite through one processing route. The sample was provided by Australian Silica Quartz Group from its Darling Range bauxite project in Western Australia. It comprised material collected from 16 vacuum drill samples across four holes at the Athena and Ceres prospects. Containing 80 parts per million of gallium, the sample yielded an extraction rate of 94.9 per cent into solution. Mount Ridley said this...
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The Navratna CPSE under the Ministry of Mines, National Aluminium Company, is aiming to extend the longevity of its alumina refining and aluminium smelting operations, and therefore, trying to bank on long-term raw material security. According to a report, Nalco wants to commence the operations of its second bauxite mining lease of Pottangi in 2023, which will feed its fifth stream of alumina refinery at Damanjodi currently under expansion. The Pottangi mining lease and the Panchpatmalli mines have balance deposits of around 160 million tonnes together and are expected to offer ample bauxite to ensure the refinery operations for the next 25 to 30 years. Beside bauxite, Nalco also aims to begin mining from its captive Utkal-D coal block from the calendar year 2020, which is estimated to...
Rusal-owned Aughinish alumina refinery, which started with 800,000 tonnes per year capacity and now produces 1.9 million tonnes, alone makes Ireland a significant hub for alumina production. Said so, Ireland is the main alumina refining hub in entire Europe and therefore, a major bauxite importer after China, USA, and Ukraine. Since 2006, the country has been featuring as one of the world's top five bauxite importing countries, with the estimated import volume of 4.81 million tonnes in 2017 and 4.61 million tonnes in 2018, according to the international trade data. This represents that the import volume in 2018 was down by 4.15 per cent year on year. However, in 2019, the bauxite import by Ireland is expected to stand higher than the preceding year by about 3.03 per cent to 4.75 million...
China’s ability to move faster with the infrastructure deals gives the country an edge in African infrastructure investment over the U.S., European and Japanese rivals. As the first installment of US$649 million financing has arrived, Ghana is moving fast to build the infrastructure projects promised as part of the bauxite deal with Chinese construction conglomerate Sinohydro. According to the agreement Ghana would sell 5% of its bauxite reserves in exchange for US$2 billion fund for infrastructure development. Beijing will finance $2 billion worth of rail, road and bridge networks in Ghana. Within 18 months of the beginning of negotiation process for this bauxite deal, road construction process has begun for nationwide road construction projects. Projects under phase one have been...
Turkey’s bauxite exports have been logging year-on-year growth over the last three years. The country grew its bauxite exports from 352570 tonnes in 2016 to 1.84 million tonnes in 2018 (estimated). Bauxite exports from Turkey are expected to continue their upward trend in 2019. {newsStudioGallery} The top destinations of Turkey's bauxite exports in 2018 were the USA, Canada, China, Mexico, Germany, Croatia, Spain, Ukraine and Greece among others. According to recent estimates, in 2016, Turkey exported 352570 tonnes of bauxite, which inched up 84.58 per cent or 298196 tonnes to stand at 650766 tonnes in 2017. In 2018, the volume further climbed to reach 1.18 million tonnes of bauxite, an increase of 82.33 per cent from 2017 and 236.55 per cent from 2016. In 2019, the country is estimated...
Canyon Resources, which is planning to develop its Minim Martap Bauxite Project in Cameroon in two stages, has recently released a scoping study supporting a simple and effective stage one mining operation. The scoping study reveals that stage one would be a self-supporting bauxite mining operation with a simple, low cost and fast track shipping to market using the existing rail and port facilities. Stage two would aim higher export volumes and lower operating cost with the implementation of the Kribi rail extension allowing access to a deep-water port. According to the scoping study estimate, stage one would be a low capital start-up option with a capaex of estimated US$78 million and the first stage will produce an estimated three million tonnes of bauxite per year. The study forecasts...
Australian Bauxite Limited's bulk-sampling programs at Binjour QLD in 2019 have defined the optimum Mining Lease Application and clarified the mining-processing strategy for the Binjour bauxite project. The results confirmed that the mining project can operate at a bulk-scale and is capable of achieving the required bauxite specifications. ABL considers its Binjour bauxite project to be the best source of gibbsite-trihydrate (THA) metallurgical grade bauxite in Queensland, which is ideal for low temperature alumina refineries. The ABx Board of Directors will review the project summary and financial assessment in mid-December. The progress of the Binjour project remains on schedule after the sampling results. If ABx resolves to proceed, a Mining Lease Application will be lodged in early...
Emirates Global Aluminium has signed an agreement to supply Xinfa with bauxite from its Guinea Alumina Corporation bauxite mine for the next five years. EGA will supply the Chinese company with millions of tonnes of bauxite each year from 2020, with the first vessel scheduled to load in January. Abdulla Kalban, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of EGA, said: “GAC is a new global source of high quality bauxite, responsibly produced and with cost-effective shipping using the world’s largest bulk cargo vessels. The strategy we are successfully implementing is to have a diversified customer base for GAC bauxite in major markets including China and India. We are pleased to now have Xinfa as a bauxite customer.” The company invested some $1.4 billion to develop the GAC project, one...
Rocktree Consulting has announced completion of the Front-End Engineering and Design (FEED) for a new floating terminal for Metro Mining Limited’s Bauxite Hills Mine in Australia. The miner exports its bauxite to China, the key consumer of bauxite. The FEED work is a part of an updated Definitive Feasibility Study (DFS) for the Stage 2 expansion of the Bauxite Hills Mine, which is located approximately 95km north of Weipa, Queensland. Metro Mining is working on expanding its bauxite exports from about 3.5 MT to 6 MT per year by 2021. The optimization of an on-water transhipment facility is a part of the expansion work in order to load bauxite on to larger vessels, increasing transhipment volumes and loading rates. Now Bauxite Hill mine exports bauxite by smaller self-loading bulk...
Indonesia, with the sixth-largest bauxite reserves in the world, reportedly believes that its bauxite downstream can reach US$13 billion next year from the current US$9 billion. Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan pointed out that the country, despite having the sixth-largest bauxite reserves in the world, only exports the ore. President Joko Widodo said he recently directed to enhance processing to increase the value of the processing industry. He added if bauxite was processed into various derivatives, the value could go up to 11 digits, and this potential had not been maximised yet. The Indonesian government will consider accelerating an export ban on bauxite and other mineral items such as tin and alumina, among others, depending on the scale of...
Amidst the potential primary aluminium production capacity, the GCC aluminium giants are increasingly exploring upstream possibilities as well. For instance, Al Taweelah alumina refinery and the Boke bauxite project in the Republic of Guinea are the key parts of EGA’s strategic expansion in upstream in the aluminium value chain. The Boke bauxite project, the greenfield project in two phases through EGA’s subsidiary Guinea Alumina Corporation (GAC), was started being constructed in 2017, with the expectation of producing 12 million tonnes per annum bauxite ore, which would be entirely exported. In early August 2019, it made the first shipment from its mine, marking the beginning of EGA’s status as integrated aluminium major. The project is the result of a US$1.4 billion greenfield...
According to an official from parent and state-owned company Chinalco, Aluminium Corporation of China Limited, popularly known as Chalco, would make the first shipment from its Boffa’s bauxite mine in Guinea by early-December. Last month, a Chinalco official at the China Mining conference in Tianjin had said the Boffa launch postponed to the first quarter of 2020. But now it is expected to be begun by early-December, producing 12 million tonnes of bauxite each year. Chen Qi, deputy general manager of Chinalco said at an industry conference, “The mining operation has already started and the first output to be shipped to China at the beginning of December.” He also said on the sidelines of the conference that Chalco would finish construction on the first phase of a 2 million tonnes per year...
The Czech Republic’s estimated imports of bauxite increased by 62.03 per cent year-on-year in 2018. The country procured 47407 tonnes of bauxite from the global market last year. Turkey continued to remain the top supplier of the ore to the Czech Republic. Turkey exported an estimated 18417 tonnes in 2018, an increase of 177.53% from 6636 tonnes in 2017. {newsStudioGallery} Other key bauxite exporting countries namely, Montenegro, Germany, Greece, and China supplied lesser volumes of bauxite to the Czech Republic: 10518 tonnes, 6338 tonnes, 5702 tonnes, tonnes, and 3113 tonnes respectively. According to recent estimates, the Czech Republic imported 20068 tonnes of bauxite in 2016, which increased by 45.79 per cent to total at 29258 tonnes in 2017. The country’s estimated bauxite imports...
According to a recent report, China has approved the funding of the first lot of Phase One of the Sinohydro projects in Ghana, as per the agreement signed between China and Ghana in 2018. According to the agreement, China will have access to sites to mine bauxite in Ghana in exchange of development assistance from Ghana. According to Ghana’s Vice-President, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, the projects under the agreement had been grouped in lots, and their review and approval were ongoing. “Major progress had been made, with the governments of China and Ghana determined to ensure the success of the ‘bauxite for development’ barter deal, which would see the leveraging of a fraction of Ghana’s bauxite to undertake a massive overhaul of her infrastructural, industrial and agricultural base,” he said....
Metro Mining Limited has received a loan facility from Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility (NAIF) for Stage 2 Expansion of the Bauxite Hills Mine north of Weipa on Eastern Cape York. The facility is for up to A$47.5 million provided through a loan for up to 9 years. The funding would be used for the construction and mobilisation of a Floating Terminal at Skardon River. Once the expansion is complete, the production will increase to 6 million Wet Metric Tonnes (WMT) per annum by 2021. Metro Mining Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Simon Finnis, said: “We are very pleased to have secured the support of NAIF in providing a long-term loan to provide financing for the Stage 2 Expansion. Bauxite Hills will be a significant contributor to the economy of Northern Australia and...
During the last decade, GCC has emerged as one of the major primary aluminium producing regions of the world, with production increasing from 1.8 million tonnes in 2008 to 5.3 million tonnes in 2018. The region’s share of world primary production increased from 4.5% to 8.3% during this period. However, around 80% of the total primary aluminium produced in the GCC region is exported and the rest gets used by the domestic downstream sector. Aluminium usage including primary and recycled metal in GCC region is estimated at 1.2 million tonnes for 2018. Aluminium is used in the manufacture of various downstream products including flat rolled products (FRP), foil, extrusions, wirerods and castings. From the end use perspective, currently, the architectural, building and construction (ABC)...
Emirates Global Aluminium, on Thursday, November 10, reportedly announced that the first Capsize vessel sailed from its bauxite mining subsidiary Guinea Alumina Corporation in the Republic of Guinea. Operated by shipping line Berge Bulk, the vessel, the MV Berge Rosa, is bound for a customer in India loaded with 173,000 tonnes of bauxite ore. Bauxite exports from GAC began in August, but so far used smaller vessels. Last year, Emirates Global Aluminium had signed a long-term logistics agreement with Louis Dreyfus Ports Limited and Abu Dhabi Ports Company to develop a barging and transhipment service in deeper waters offshore Kamsar, so to be able to transfer bauxite to Capesize vessels for ocean shipping. Abdulla Kalban, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of EGA, said: “Using...
Metro Mining Limited, in its monthly performance report, revealed that its bauxite shipments at Bauxite Hills Mine during October came in at 504,000 wet metric tonnes (WMT), marking the strongest monthly performance since operations began in April last year. Compared with 497,000 tonnes in September, the shipments in October stood higher by 1.4 per cent. Good weather conditions and seasonal high tides with loading rates maintained above 16,000 tonnes per day could be the primary reason for this robust level of shipments last month. The mining volume in October came in at 479,000 tonnes, which was, however, down by 4 per cent from 501,000 tonnes in September . The mining per day stood at 15,452 tonnes, again down by 7.4 per cent from 16,696 tonnes month-on-month. Up until October 31, the...
According to a Reuters report, Malaysia will issue bauxite mining licenses to companies in December or January, which will allow the miners to resume activities after the ban in early 2016 over unregulated mining and water contamination. The news came after Xavier Jayakumar, Malaysia’s water, land and natural resources minister announced this in a parliament. Malaysia was once the biggest bauxite supplier to top aluminium producers in China. At the end of 2015, the bauxite shipments from the Southeast Asian country were about 3.5 million tonnes. The mining mostly used to take place near the east coast port city of Kuantan in Pahang state of Malaysia. Earlier this year, the Malaysian government had lifted the ban on mining, with a condition that the miners had to conduct an environmental...
