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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According to a recent report, CVG Bauxilum , Venezuela state-owned bauxite and alumina producer, has suspended its bauxite and alumina production due to a lack of imported materials, stable power supply, and mismanagement. The company and union officials said they renounced the plans of ramping up the monthly production levels of 18,000 tonnes of alumina and reviving the company’s 6 million tonnes per year open-pit bauxite mine before the end of 2020 for the uncertain future. Bauxilum's shutdown this month "shuts the lid on the aluminium industry's coffin," a senior company union official said. He added, "The entire Venezuelan aluminum industry from the Los Pijiguaos bauxite mine to the smelters is now shut down, possibly forever." Industry and national production minister Tareck El...
Metro Mining has release its Quarterly Activities Report for the September quarter 2019. Total Bauxite mining for the Quarter stood at 1,420K WMT and the miner shipped 1,415K WMT. Both the numbers registered record levels since operations commenced. The Bauxite Hills Mines has registered month on month increase in mining and shipping levels. The entire bauxite production in September Quarter 2019 was shipped to Chinese customers. Approximately 2.3M WMT of 2019 production will be sold under the long–term off-take to Xinfa. September Quarter shipments exceeded budget by 13. Metro Mining remains on track to meet its 2019 production and shipping guidance of 3.3-3.5M WMT. For the first three quarters of 2019, the miner produced 2.3 WMT of bauxite compared to 2.3 WMT of bauxite in the whole...
Shanghai Metals Market found that China’s bauxite imports fell in September for the second straight month, due to a weak supply from major sources such as the Republic of Guinea, as the latter entered a rainy season in July. Customs data under HS code 26060000 showed that China imported 6.75 million tonnes of bauxite in September, down 21.86 per cent from 9.04 million tonnes in August 2019 and 2.08 per cent from 6.89 million tonnes. This brought imports in the first nine months of 2019 to 78.13 million tonnes, up 26.79% from the same period a year earlier. From Guinea, China imported 1.79 million tonnes in the month of September, down 50.89 per cent from August, marking a decline for the second month in a row. From Australia, on the other hand, the China’s bauxite import volume rose by...
IBAAS has announced the 9 th IBAAS International Conference & Exhibition (IBAAS-JNARDDC 2020) to be held in Raipur, India during November 4 - 6, 2020 to be co-organized with Jawaharlal Nehru Aluminium Research Development & Design Centre (JNARDDC), India. The theme for the IBAAS-JNARDDC 2020 conference is “Sustainability Challenges of Bauxite, Alumina & Aluminium Industry”. It is to be noted that Aluminium Stewardship Initiative (ASI), Australia will be holding an exclusive workshop during this conference and exhibition. Raipur, a mining hub in the state of Chhattisgarh, is located in close proximity to the major Indian Aluminium smelters. The conference organizing committee is formulating a world class program focusing on key topics and issues in the bauxite, alumina, aluminium and...
United Company Rusal in its third-quarter result of 2019 reports a decline of 6.9 per cent in bauxite production from 4,242 thousand tonnes in Q2 2019 to 3,948 thousand tonnes. In the first nine months of the year, the company, as per the report, produced 12,021 thousand tonnes of bauxite, compared with 10,128 thousand tonnes during the same period last year. This means the bauxite output grew 18.7 per cent year-on-year in the nine months of 2019. The production of alumina also grew in the third quarter of the year from 1,918 thousand tonnes in Q2 2019 to 1,957 thousand tonnes in Q3 2019, up 2.1 per cent quarter-on-quarter. With this, the total production in the nine months of 2019 amounted to 5,808 thousand tonnes, up 0.1 per cent from 5,816 thousand tonnes in the same period last year....
A study published by researchers at the University of Queensland’s Sustainable Minerals Institute shows that some significant metal ores have the potential to face Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) challenges, which may impact the global supply of metals. The scientists studied the ESG context of more than 600 individual copper, iron and bauxite ore bodies before coming to a conclusion. Iron, copper and bauxite represent 95% of all industrial metals produced annually and demand for it is expected to double by 2050. They analysed each ore body against eight risks: waste, water, biodiversity, land uses, indigenous peoples, social vulnerability, political fragility, and approval and permitting. “The majority of the 296 copper orebodies, 324 iron orebodies and 50 bauxite orebodies we...
According to a Reuters report, bauxite mining operations in the West African country of Guinea came back to normal after it was disrupted temporarily because of political protests. Protesters were demonstrating against a possible change in the constitution that may let President Alpha Conde continue a third term. The news was confirmed by representatives from the consortium of Societe Miniere de Boke (SMB) and Singapore's Winning, which is Guinea's top exporter of bauxite, and the Guinea Bauxite Company (CBG). "We have been impacted by the protests, with around two-and-a-half slow days of production," a CBG official told Reuters, estimating typical losses from a one-day halt to operations at around $1 million. He also added that the bauxite loaded train heading to the Russian aluminium...
Ghana government is soon constructing two weigh bridges in the Bibiani-Anhwiaso-Bekwai Municipality and Ahanta West District respectively in order to accurately measure the quantity of bauxite and manganese being carried to the Takoradi Port for export. Ghana’s Minister of Lands and Natural Resources Mr Kwaku Asomah-Cheremeh recently inspected the construction work of both the weigh bridges. The bridges will enable the Government Minerals Commission to measure the exact tonnage of bauxite and manganese exported by the Ghana Bauxite Company (GBC) and the Ghana Manganese Company (GMC); and help measure the expected revenue due the state. It will also help the government to do away with any under declaration of tonnages of bauxite and manganese exported by the GMC and GBC. The Minister and...
Rio Tinto’s third quarter bauxite production stood 9% higher than the same period of 2018, with increased production across all sites. Production came in at 13.79 million tonnes, up 3% quarter-on-quarter. Bauxite production stood at 39.96 million tonnes in the first nine months of 2019, with a year-on-year increase of 3%. The company shipped 10.4 million tonnes of bauxite to third parties in the third quarter, 23% higher than the same period of 2018. The third-party shipments stood at 28.68 million tonnes in January-September, 13% higher than the same period of 2018. Rio expects its share of bauxite production to be around 54 million tonnes (previously 56 to 59 million tonnes), reflecting weather related events in the first quarter, downtime to address commissioning items on new mines and...
According to the global export-import data, France’s bauxite import from Guinea is likely to rise this year after a drop in 2018. The data shows the estimated volume of import in 2019 may come in at 1.09 million tonnes, compared with 1 million tonnes in 2018. This means France’s bauxite import from Guinea is expected grow by 9 per cent year-on-year. Last year, the country’s import volume from Guinea stood lower by about 7.4 per cent YoY, as France had imported 1.08 million tonnes of bauxite from Guinea in 2017. In 2016, France’s import from Guinea was approximately at 503,900 tonnes, which represents a year-on-year jump of about 114 per cent in 2017. Along with the growth in import volume, France’s bauxite import cost from Guinea is also likely to increase in 2019 from US$28 million in...
Metro Mining has announced the completion of the Definitive Feasibility Study (DFS) for the Stage 2 expansion of the Bauxite Hills Mine. The press release says that the expansion will reduce unit operating costs and increase production capacity to 6M WMT per annum from 2021 onwards. The DFS also confirms reserves of 109.5Mt at Bauxite Hills and a mine life to 2037. The key components of Stage 2 expansion are: Construction and mobilisation to Skardon River of a r Floating Terminal with the ability to load 6M WMT pa of bauxite; Scale up of the current mining, haulage and transhipment fleets; Optimisation and upgrading of the existing port and barge loading facilities Metro Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer Simon Finnis said, “The completion of the feasibility study and selection...
Metallica Minerals, an Australian bauxite developer, announced the company has identified three alternative logistics solutions to deliver bauxite from its Urquhart bauxite project. Metallica will finalise the solution and release an updated pre-feasibility study for the project by the end of December. “Further regulatory approvals are required for all three alternatives and these are planned to be advanced, subject to a positive outcome from an updated pre-feasibility study for the project which will determine a selected development option and targeted to be complete by about the end of December 2019,” Metallica Minerals said. The three potential logistic options identified include the building of a shiploader adjacent to the Urquhart Heavy Minerals Sands (HMS) Mining Lease (ML) owned by...
Indonesian government is weighing on the proposal of the bauxite-rich province of West Kalimantan for change in royalty rules after the recent increase in bauxite production. According to a statement from the coordinating ministry for maritime affairs in charge of mining, the central government is in the process of revising regulations and a draft will soon be submitted to President Joko Widodo for approval. He has already approved some changes in the royalty rate as suggested by the West Kalimantan government. The ministry however did not specify which regulations are being revised. Currently miners pay 3.75% of revenue from sales of bauxite to the government. The West Kalimantan government asks for a larger share of revenue from bauxite, and some authority to handle a miner’s export...
According to a recent report, Aluminium Corporation of China, also known as Chalco, has postponed the launch of its Boffa bauxite project in Guinea until at least the first quarter of 2020. The news came after Chalco’s official declared it on Thursday, October 10. The construction of the project is expected to be completed in the first quarter of 2020 before production begins, said Chalco’s director general of mineral resources Wang Dongbo at the China mining conference in Tianjin. The project holds around 1.75 billion tonnes of bauxite, with an estimated annual production of 12 million tonnes a year in the first phase. In June last year, Chalco had signed an agreement with Guinea government to develop the Boffa bauxite project in the west of the country, while in October, the...
African-focussed, Perth-based listed explorer, Lindian Resources, is looking at its newly acquired Gaoual bauxite project in the north-western corner of Guinea in West Africa, of which it owns 51%. Recent due diligence and field examinations show that bauxite deposit contains the high value, very rare alumina grades. Gaoual’s “alumina” grades are well above conventional bauxite values and at 53.57%, pretty much shoot the lights out. While the conventional “in-situ” style bauxite deposit grades have 44% to 48% alumina, surface samples from Gaoual contain 53.57% alumina. The sample contains “reactive” silica content averaging below 2% and minor amounts of boehemite. The deposit also has a vertical width of 37 metres thickness, where typical in-situ bauxite ore systems rarely exceed 15...
Guinea has been facing a number of socio-political issues related to bauxite mining as the bauxite industry gets embroiled between the contradictory needs of economic development and environmental and land related concerns of the communities affected by bauxite mining. The west-African country has the world’s largest reserves of bauxite, one of the most sought after raw materials because of the growing demand for aluminium. Thirteen Guinean communities have finally entered a dispute resolution process in order to settle an issue in relation to alleged land grabbing by a bauxite mine supported by the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the World Bank’s private sector arm. IFC’s Compliance Advisor Ombudsman (CAO) will convene the dispute resolution process. CAO is an independent...
On Thursday, October 3, Metro Mining Limited reported September quarter results, with which it assured that it is well-positioned to meet 2019 production guidance of 3.3 million tonnes to 3.5 million tonnes of bauxite. As per the report, the company mined 1.42 million tonnes in the quarter from Bauxite Hills Mine taking year-to-date production to 2.3 million tonnes. Greater consistency and improved productivity played a key role in the steady growth of mining. In September, Metro’s bauxite mining was at 501,000 tonnes, up 13.09 per cent from 443,000 tonnes in July and 5.25 per cent from 476,000 tonnes in August. Metro also reported that its mining and haulage is benefitting from excellent machine availabilities. The barge loading facility and ship-loading rates are at sustainable position...
Canyon Resources released a resource upgrade for its Minim Martap Bauxite Project in Cameroon on Friday, September 27. The company reported 62% increase in total tonnage and 850% increase in the Indicated Resource component. The project now has a total resource estimate of 892 million tonnes with 45.1% Al2O3 and 2.8% SiO2. “Upgrading the Minim Martap resource to nearly 900 million tonnes of high-grade, low contaminant bauxite confirms the Minim Martap Project as a global tier-1 bauxite asset,” Canyon Managing Director Phillip Gallagher said. He added that the bauxite is gibbsite-rich and suitable for both high and low temperature alumina refineries. He also said that the Minim Martap Project is one of the largest Guinea-style, high-grade, low contaminant bauxite deposit located outside of...
